When we left off last week, the party was getting ready to visit Warehouse 11 in order to discover why Hyza had been kidnapped. The party initially attempted some recon around the outside of the warehouse, which included Garron's feeble attempt at using NPC Dirk as a battering ram on the front door. Lacking a rogue, the party strategy quickly disintegrated into a "break down the door and see what happens" style of play, as they broke into the back door. The party ensured that Dirk entered first, and as they walked in (failing all spot checks), Dirk was instantly strung up into a net trap on the ceiling. Garron, luckily, dodged this trap, only to find that the party was surrounded by five Red-Fist thugs. Hyza ran out the back door, with the Red Fist thugs in hot pursuit.
This is where we wrapped last week, and this week, the adventurers were faced with some moral dilemmas. Unfortunately, Rhianna, our friend who plays Hyza, has decided that DND is not for her, and will not be attending any more game sessions. She will be treated as a NPC for the rest of the game (if she appears at all). This week, as Hyza rounded a corner to run away, two more of the Red Fist thugs restrained her, and she was dragged back to the warehouse.
The Red Fist thug leader, accompanied by a male halfling, two female twin warriors, and a woman wearing ornate robes, introduced himself as Rocco Furioso (yep, that is his name), and thanked them for delivering the merchandise. Hyza was handed off to the woman, and the party received 500 gold for her. The party agreed to meet Rocco the next day to possibly take work from him. After being dismissed, they hung around the warehouse for a little while, trying to see what would become of Hyza. Unfortunately, Val and Dirk were spotted as Rocco lead his captive out of the warehouse, though he paid no real notice to them. Edison watched from afar as Rocco, the mystery woman, and Hyza boarded a ferry that crossed the bay and disappeared from sight.
Tired, the adventurers headed back to the Blue Oyster, where they met a water-drinking dwarven monk named Jasper Firmknuckle, who LOVES to grapple. This monk is our new Player Character, created and played by Mat (who played the late Vicks Underfoot). The monk decided he had nothing better to do than to join the adventurers on their quest to meet Rocco the next day.
They met with Rocco in a clean but semi-shabby house in the Fishing District. He gave them some breakfast, and told them that the Red Fist needed some help. A man named Gart Flin owes one of their clients one thousand gold. The crew also has to bring back a letter signed by Gart, swearing that he will give up any rights he has to his child, born of a woman named Lacia Mordreth. The crew took the letter and agreed to do the job, and Jasper challenged Rocco to a grappling match. Rocco laughed, and his crew thought it was all good fun, especially when Rocco easily defeated Jasper with a quick take-down. They dawdled around town for a little while, looking into some merchant stalls. While doing so, they got a magical ring and a magical mace identified. The Mace is a small light mace of the heavens, which increases damage and attack power against all undead creatures, while the red necklace (originally taken from Isabella, the pirate captain) is a rare amulet of dwarven make. The amulet provides various bonuses to discovering and dismantling traps in underground places. It might fetch a good price with the right person, though the shop owner did not express interest. After discovering the magical items, the team was off to the work-camp to find Gart, get his signature, and take his money.
The city of Illares is surrounded by vineyards and farms of citrus and olives. Many of these farms are worked by slaves, though there are also workers who stay in camps outside of the city and contract to various farms. Gart's camp is about a day and a half's travel to the southwest, so the adventurers set forth on foot, staying on the main road. After about a day's travel, they decided to stay in a nearby farmhouse. They knocked on the door, and an old man answered and reluctantly allowed the men to stay in a shed near the house. He brought them a small dinner, and made them promise not to tell his wife that they were staying. They agreed, and after searching the shed thoroughly for traps and testing the uncontaminated food for poison, the adventurers concluded that the old man, Grindald, and his younger wife, Drucilla, were vampires. Edison took first watch, and though he did hear something stirring in the bushes overnight, he was unable to discover the source of the noise, or find anything peculiar.
The men continued on the next day, and arrived at the work camp in the early evening. After some asking around, they located Gart Flin. The crew didn't seem to agree on how to approach him. Edison sought to trick Gart into revealing information and signing the contract, while Valamonde and Garron took a more straight-forward approach. Jasper stayed neutral, and instead challenged various men at the work camps to grappling contests. Eventually, the crew ended up ushering Gart into a small building, and intimidated him into signing the contract. A discussion with Gart revealed that he feared for the life of his newborn son, because the Red Fist often sells children into slavery. Gart appeared to be in love with Lacia, a prostitute at a brothel in the Fisher District. The adventurers felt pretty "icky" about infant-slaves, and told Gart that they would help him rescue his son, but they need to play along with the Red Fist's plan. Gart trusted them, and lead them to his money stash the next morning.
After retrieving the gold, (about one thousand, just as Rocco said he would have) the adventurers left Gart to work, and they headed back to town. They stayed at the same farmhouse where they did last time, and are still convinced that someone in that house is a vampire. After arriving in Illares, the adventurers wanted to meet Lacia and find out more information, as they were not keen as helping an infant be sold to slavers. D&D adventures are not complete without several trips to whorehouses.
The Pearl Necklace is a saloon style building in the Fisher District. The crew went in, and met the proprietress, an older woman named Skilma Silverbush. Garron immediately asked for Lacia and her son, souring Skilma's opinion of him. However, the other adventurers wandered around the whorehouse, looking for clues. Valamonde struck up a conversation with an elven woman named Sylva who played the harp quite well. He took her upstairs, while Jaspar decided to incite a grappling/wrestling contest. Whoever won the contest would be his "prize." The prostitutes loved this idea, and Skilma ordered the floor to be cleared for a wrestling bout. Th contestants were: a pretty elf named Landra, a human named Smiles, a halfling called Rosa, a half-orc named Ogda, and a twink named Derek. There were several bouts, bets placed, and adorable prostitute tickle fights, but in the end, Ogda the half-orc was victorious. Edison won some money, and also got to take Ogda upstairs for the evening. Garron attempted to break into Skilma Silverbush's office, though he did not find any information. All attempts to discover information about Lacia were rebuffed, though Valamonde told Sylva where he was staying, and pleaded her to give him some information. The men headed back to the Blue Oyster, and we wrapped for the night.
Although the blog post might not show it, this was a pretty funny evening. I swear the players stayed in Grindald's shack for almost a majority of the night, suspicious of the farmer who let them stay on his land. I think the best part was the wrestling at the Pearl Necklace, an event that I did not foresee. I was also not sure what the party would do with the issue of Lacia and her baby (though the end result has yet to be seen.) I'll give more of my thoughts on that as decisions are made final, and the players carry out their will.
Lessons Learned:
The players write the story. The DM provides the framework, but the results are anything but predictable. For instance, I did not foresee a prostitute-wrestling match, though it ended up being the highlight of the evening.
Morality is fluid. The Players had no issue with kidnapping and selling Hyza, a former player-character. Hyza had originally given me an easy back-story to work with, so I was using her character as a hook to unite the party and provide a story-line for the game. All of that has been thrown out the window! (or has it???)
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