December 11th, 2016
A Short Jaunt With The Old Party
Return
to the old times... With the ex-players (Matt and Thomas) home from
college, we return to the adventures of the original higher level
group, though Nick needs a character since Mad Merrick isn't high
enough level yet, so he is playtesting the optional Time Blade class
that we are currently developing.
From
my left:
Nick playing Anna the human Timeblade who tries to not look pretty and fails.
Thomas playing Trainfield the dwarven Cleric who came to chew tree sap and hammer bozos, and he's all out of tree sap.
Nilo playing ED-209, no, wait, playing Noohien the half-orc thief who stays quiet but is still intimidating.
Matt playing Nova the halfling thief, rogue extraordinaire and generally peaceable soul.
Zack playing Trinidon the elven mage, who is useful multi-tool and tactical nuclear solution all in one.
Sarai playing Parwa the elvenish druid, who can answer the question "When is a tree not a tree?"
and Chris playing Lucius the human holy warrior of CHAOS who will kill you with kindness.
Nick playing Anna the human Timeblade who tries to not look pretty and fails.
Thomas playing Trainfield the dwarven Cleric who came to chew tree sap and hammer bozos, and he's all out of tree sap.
Nilo playing ED-209, no, wait, playing Noohien the half-orc thief who stays quiet but is still intimidating.
Matt playing Nova the halfling thief, rogue extraordinaire and generally peaceable soul.
Zack playing Trinidon the elven mage, who is useful multi-tool and tactical nuclear solution all in one.
Sarai playing Parwa the elvenish druid, who can answer the question "When is a tree not a tree?"
and Chris playing Lucius the human holy warrior of CHAOS who will kill you with kindness.
Today's
mini-adventure began with most of the party returning to the
stronghold that the party had built on the ridge road. They had been
spending time wandering here and there on their own quiet missions.
Trinidon was still in what is technically his stronghold, immersed in
his researches and occasionally overseeing the business at the
tavern.
Upon gathering the party caught each other up on the events of the last five months. Most had nothing major to tell, but two had big news stories. Lucius had the news for the revenge-minded. He had heard a story of someone using a shield identical to his that had been taken by the orcs several years prior; a shield he was bound and determined to retrieve. The story said that the holder of the shield had been seen at Slavers' Bay, the port on the far north end of the upper reaches of the Bay of Lloringhold. Nova had news that, while personal, was equally interesting. Someone he knew in Silverwood told him that an almost unnaturally intimidating man had been asking around the city about him. The man was said to be tall and hairless, fierce in expression and demeanor. With his history, Nova was rightfully worried about what this might mean.
After some discussion and some haphazard planning, the decision was made to go north to Slavers' Bay and try to find and reclaim the goods that had been stolen long ago. The trip was made to the Fortress of All Faiths that the party had cleared and helped restore on the shores of Lloringhold Bay. The party were greeted by the clerical inhabitants as the heroes that they are, and a few days after the party's arrival their old maybe-a-pirate friend Murdock came into port. After learning of their plans, Murdock agreed to take them close to the slavers' port, but since he was a wanted man there he could take them no further. The party agreed and they left the Fortress.
On the trip they met one of Murdock's new crew, a rather attractive woman named Anna. Anna admitted to studying swordplay and was quite skilled at some aspects of it, though she couldn't quite best Lucius in battle. Murdock was content to let her leave the crew to adventure with the party (because a beautiful woman on a boat can be a distraction), and she was quite content to go to escape the severely unwanted attentions of Eddie the Rat.
The group stopped at Blackjack's Port, which they had also helped to kill the previous ruler of and installed their old friends Blackjack and Bear in positions of authority. They visited with Blackjack and Bear overnight. Trinidon also placed a homing gem in their quarters at Blackjack's home so they could travel to and from there easily. Well, Trinidon could at least. While at Blackjack's the party also talked with Jaen about how things had changed in Silverwood and with the change in leadership of the guild Jaen and his allies were no longer hunted. Jaen was happy to hear the news and promised to come south sometime for a visit, if not to Silverwood itself, at least to the Fortress and the stronghold. Jaen's crew had shrunk in size somewhat: He and Eve (Evelyn) the minstrel were still leading the crew, but after Tyrus (THAT WAS THE DAMN DWARF'S NAME WHO FOLLOWED TRAINFELD AND IS AT THE FORTRESS OF ALL FAITHS! TYRUS!) left the crew, a few others had drifted away too; the brothers Dak and Dirk (thief and fighter respectively) had joined up with a freebooter ship and were riding the waves, and Tevor and Carver (two thieves) had gone off exploring on their own with the intent of making it down to Calindas someday. Glorindel (half-elven spellsword) and Ophelia (thief and Eve's younger sister) had stayed with Jaen and Eve, and they had recruited Scot and Filian (fighters) to join them.
After old home week (okay, day) the party sailed off again until Murdock anchored as close as he was willing to go to the slavers' port. A longboat took them to the shore, and they headed toward Slavers' Bay. A few hours hike brought them within sighting distance of the city, such as it was. As they rounded the headlands and caught a glimpse of it the town seemed to radiate an overwhelming feeling of abject misery. They moved closer until they could see the slightly flooded road as it passed through the saltwater marsh between the hillside where they were and the raised plateau where the town was. There were four or so somewhat inattentive guards at the gate across the way, and Trinidon flew over then began to walk up to the gate invisibly. In the process he found a trap buried in the dirt and muck of the roadway and flew back to warn the party. Prolonged observation while the mage explored showed that the wooden palisade was in poor condition, sometimes upright but more often leaning one way or another and in at couple of spots collapsed flat. Trinidon cast fly spells on the party who were not already sparrows perched on the palisade (i.e. the druid), and they crossed flying low to take advantage of the cover of the swamp grasses and bushes and entered through the nearest of the collapsed sections of the palisade.
Once inside they found themselves surrounded by hovels in what appeared to be abject slums. As they moved through a young teenaged girl approached them and asked if she could help them. She was emaciated and had the beginnings of the distended stomach that comes from near starvation, so Trainfeld offered her a day's rations of which she ate about half before secreting the remainder within the rags she wore for clothes. She offered to help them as a guide and the dwarf readily agreed that they would need a guide. She told the party that the place they were in was a slave pen for the slaves that worked in and around the city. They were only allowed out when they had work to do or slave buyers who wanted disposable slaves. She told them of a place where they could potentially sneak out, though she worried that the dwarf would not fit and would damage the fence making the escape route obvious to the guards. If they found an escape route, the guards usual method of dealing with it was to literally decimate the slave population in that area and make the survivors work harder. Trainfeld unfortunately damaged the fence, which brought Mara, the slave girl, to tears. But between the heat metal spell of the druid and the metalworking skills of the dwarf, the chain links were fixed so that the damage was not obvious. Then, borrowing clothes and a robe from the two thieves, Mara began leading the group to town.
They were stopped at the gate to "civilization" by two half-orc guards who demanded a password from Mara before they could enter. Mara muttered something to them and the guards looked momentarily nervous before waving them through the gate. The thieves were sure they heard her say something about Corby, but who or what this is was unknown.
Mara led them on to the main tavern and inn in town and with some more muttering to the barkeep and a payment of 10 gold from the group's "lackey" (Nova), the party was given a room for the night, which turned out to be a bunkroom on the third floor. There the game paused with the party preparing to plan for their next steps. How to find their stolen gear? How to help Mara and the other slaves? And how best to deal with the slavers that ran the city? The party (and the players) ponder their questions for next week!
Upon gathering the party caught each other up on the events of the last five months. Most had nothing major to tell, but two had big news stories. Lucius had the news for the revenge-minded. He had heard a story of someone using a shield identical to his that had been taken by the orcs several years prior; a shield he was bound and determined to retrieve. The story said that the holder of the shield had been seen at Slavers' Bay, the port on the far north end of the upper reaches of the Bay of Lloringhold. Nova had news that, while personal, was equally interesting. Someone he knew in Silverwood told him that an almost unnaturally intimidating man had been asking around the city about him. The man was said to be tall and hairless, fierce in expression and demeanor. With his history, Nova was rightfully worried about what this might mean.
After some discussion and some haphazard planning, the decision was made to go north to Slavers' Bay and try to find and reclaim the goods that had been stolen long ago. The trip was made to the Fortress of All Faiths that the party had cleared and helped restore on the shores of Lloringhold Bay. The party were greeted by the clerical inhabitants as the heroes that they are, and a few days after the party's arrival their old maybe-a-pirate friend Murdock came into port. After learning of their plans, Murdock agreed to take them close to the slavers' port, but since he was a wanted man there he could take them no further. The party agreed and they left the Fortress.
On the trip they met one of Murdock's new crew, a rather attractive woman named Anna. Anna admitted to studying swordplay and was quite skilled at some aspects of it, though she couldn't quite best Lucius in battle. Murdock was content to let her leave the crew to adventure with the party (because a beautiful woman on a boat can be a distraction), and she was quite content to go to escape the severely unwanted attentions of Eddie the Rat.
The group stopped at Blackjack's Port, which they had also helped to kill the previous ruler of and installed their old friends Blackjack and Bear in positions of authority. They visited with Blackjack and Bear overnight. Trinidon also placed a homing gem in their quarters at Blackjack's home so they could travel to and from there easily. Well, Trinidon could at least. While at Blackjack's the party also talked with Jaen about how things had changed in Silverwood and with the change in leadership of the guild Jaen and his allies were no longer hunted. Jaen was happy to hear the news and promised to come south sometime for a visit, if not to Silverwood itself, at least to the Fortress and the stronghold. Jaen's crew had shrunk in size somewhat: He and Eve (Evelyn) the minstrel were still leading the crew, but after Tyrus (THAT WAS THE DAMN DWARF'S NAME WHO FOLLOWED TRAINFELD AND IS AT THE FORTRESS OF ALL FAITHS! TYRUS!) left the crew, a few others had drifted away too; the brothers Dak and Dirk (thief and fighter respectively) had joined up with a freebooter ship and were riding the waves, and Tevor and Carver (two thieves) had gone off exploring on their own with the intent of making it down to Calindas someday. Glorindel (half-elven spellsword) and Ophelia (thief and Eve's younger sister) had stayed with Jaen and Eve, and they had recruited Scot and Filian (fighters) to join them.
After old home week (okay, day) the party sailed off again until Murdock anchored as close as he was willing to go to the slavers' port. A longboat took them to the shore, and they headed toward Slavers' Bay. A few hours hike brought them within sighting distance of the city, such as it was. As they rounded the headlands and caught a glimpse of it the town seemed to radiate an overwhelming feeling of abject misery. They moved closer until they could see the slightly flooded road as it passed through the saltwater marsh between the hillside where they were and the raised plateau where the town was. There were four or so somewhat inattentive guards at the gate across the way, and Trinidon flew over then began to walk up to the gate invisibly. In the process he found a trap buried in the dirt and muck of the roadway and flew back to warn the party. Prolonged observation while the mage explored showed that the wooden palisade was in poor condition, sometimes upright but more often leaning one way or another and in at couple of spots collapsed flat. Trinidon cast fly spells on the party who were not already sparrows perched on the palisade (i.e. the druid), and they crossed flying low to take advantage of the cover of the swamp grasses and bushes and entered through the nearest of the collapsed sections of the palisade.
Once inside they found themselves surrounded by hovels in what appeared to be abject slums. As they moved through a young teenaged girl approached them and asked if she could help them. She was emaciated and had the beginnings of the distended stomach that comes from near starvation, so Trainfeld offered her a day's rations of which she ate about half before secreting the remainder within the rags she wore for clothes. She offered to help them as a guide and the dwarf readily agreed that they would need a guide. She told the party that the place they were in was a slave pen for the slaves that worked in and around the city. They were only allowed out when they had work to do or slave buyers who wanted disposable slaves. She told them of a place where they could potentially sneak out, though she worried that the dwarf would not fit and would damage the fence making the escape route obvious to the guards. If they found an escape route, the guards usual method of dealing with it was to literally decimate the slave population in that area and make the survivors work harder. Trainfeld unfortunately damaged the fence, which brought Mara, the slave girl, to tears. But between the heat metal spell of the druid and the metalworking skills of the dwarf, the chain links were fixed so that the damage was not obvious. Then, borrowing clothes and a robe from the two thieves, Mara began leading the group to town.
They were stopped at the gate to "civilization" by two half-orc guards who demanded a password from Mara before they could enter. Mara muttered something to them and the guards looked momentarily nervous before waving them through the gate. The thieves were sure they heard her say something about Corby, but who or what this is was unknown.
Mara led them on to the main tavern and inn in town and with some more muttering to the barkeep and a payment of 10 gold from the group's "lackey" (Nova), the party was given a room for the night, which turned out to be a bunkroom on the third floor. There the game paused with the party preparing to plan for their next steps. How to find their stolen gear? How to help Mara and the other slaves? And how best to deal with the slavers that ran the city? The party (and the players) ponder their questions for next week!
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