Day 3 - Party Morality: Selling people into slavery? That's OK! Selling babies into slavery? Ehhh we're not so sure about that...

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???)

Day 2 - How many player characters can you smuggle in a cargo hold? or It's never to early for betrayal and death!

Before we get started, allow me to introduce two new members to our adventuring crew!

Player Name: Will
Character Name: Garron Rhys
Race: Human
Class: Fighter
History: used to be a part of the castle guard in Stonesong. His job was to guard the noble family, including their beautiful daughter. Naturally, he fell in love, and the two were caught canoodling! He was disgraced and dishonorably dismissed, and began to drink his life away. In a drunken stupor, he dreamed of someplace warm, and smuggled himself onto The Olestra; a ship set sail for Illares.

Player Name: Fran
Character Name: Edison
Race: Gnome
Class: Cleric
History: The un-gnomishly-named Edison has a gnomishly prankster spirit. Little is known about this wandering little guy, but he is sure to bring trickery, luck, and mirth wherever his travels take him. Edison was traveling with some friends on a ship, when, as fate would have it, the ship split apart! Edison is not sure what happened, whether it was a random whirlpool or a mysterious sea monster. His friends and most of the ship were swept away, and he landed on a simple raft with no harm done.

Over the past week, I recruited two players! Fran is a veteran Dungeons and Dragons player, and Will has never played before! (except maybe once, when he was in elementary school.) Without further ado, let's see what they got into this week.

We started this adventure shortly after we left off. Valamonde had just convinced Kynan to tug the ship behind them, when, suddenly, a tall human wielding a great-sword stumbled upon the deck from below. Garron Rhys, another smuggled passenger, heard the ruckus of battle and tried to be of service, however, his hangover prevented him from reacting in time. Once he realized that the battle was over, he sheathed his great sword and began greeting the crew. After a charismatic introduction to the Captain, he began meeting the crew and the adventurers. Vicks Underfoot was scrounging around the ship, noticing even the smallest bits of dust and crumbs of food, but not the new passenger. Hyza continued to tend Dirk, and as the afternoon progressed, the crew in the crow's nest spotted a small figure floating in the water some ways off. The captain shrugged, as if to say, "This is the weirdest voyage ever, Let's go check out the floating figure."

Edison, a fragile but friendly gnome had been floating on his makeshift raft for two days when he spotted the Olestra. He cast a spell that set off some fireworks above him to attract attention, and the ship came to pick him up. He was pulled onto the boat by Dirk and Starla, the half-elf crew member. During this distraction, Vicks decided to sneak into the captain's cabin, barricade himself in, leave the captain a love note, and rearrange his furniture. Meanwhile, on deck, Edison greeted his rescuers heartily, and thanked Kynan for rescuing him, and his ship. Kynan was not sure what the gnome was talking about, and went along his way, ordering crew members around, and promising to drop all stragglers and travelers off at the next port.

Garron was content to explore the nearly empty pirate ship, while Valamonde and Edison sang and made merry on deck. Hyza stayed below, talking to Dirk, and over the next few days, he told her his life story. He also told her that the Slyhorns had arranged to deliver her to a Warehouse #11, and his instructions were to go at night. However, he had lost the note that he was given by his boss. Dirk then proceeded to cry a lot, and was generally in bad spirits. Hyza was very kind to him, and he promised her that he would stay with her and defend her for his penance, but he did not want to get involved in gang activities again. In an interesting move to possibly sew distrust, Vicks hands Hyza the note he stole from Dirk, and tells her, "Do not trust anyone."

I picture Illares to be similarly styled to Ceuta, a Spanish City on the northern coast of Morocco. http://www.spain.info/en/ven/otros-destinos/ceuta.html

After a few days, the ship arrives to the port city Illares. The view from the ship was very spectacular. On the northern end of the bay, warships sat in the water, and beyond them, on the shore, were large stone buildings. On the south side there were a number of cargo-style ships docked, and as if in response to the grandiose buildings to the north, number of wooden buildings and smaller earthen buildings dotted the landscape. Edison had a good Knowledge History roll, and was able to tell his new friends some information about Illares and Saiha. It is a very multi-cultural city in the Sienen Bay at the end of the Sienen River - a major river in Saiha. The ships fly a Blue flags with a white crab sigil, and underneath, another flag; gold with a green fighting dog. The flag represents the city of Illares, and the Green Fighting Dog is the sigil of the Constaça family, the current ruling nobility. He also knew that Saiha is a rather lawless land, controlled by guilds and gangs in conjunction with various noble families. It is also rumored to be a cutthroat and dangerous place, with individuals and groups constantly jockeying for power and wealth that the trade of wine and highly-valuable exotic foods can bring.

The group decided that they wanted to find Warehouse 11, and they pumped Dirk for more information. Valamonde attempted to sing songs in a small courtyard in the Fishing District, but maybe his heart wasn't into it (he rolled poorly), and while some people seemed to enjoy it, no one stuck around for very long. During the confusion of exploring a new place, Vicks decided to sneak away from his group (successfully) and go exploring on his own. He silently followed the group (unbeknownst to them) as they headed into The Blue Oyster, a small and dingy inn with a kind Proprietess, Ginger Butters. Money talks, and Edison pays Ginger for rooms, beverages, and information. Garron and Hyza gladly takes to drinking, while Valamonde goes and chats up a rough and handsome gentleman seated at a table. His wooing pays off, and the gentleman invites him to pay a visit to his room at the Inn later, saying he will leave a token on the doorknob as a trail. Meanwhile, Ginger lets Edison in on a rumor: The elderly noble matriarch, Aufen Constaça, has fallen seriously ill, and it is said that her heirs are traveling to Illares. Edison also asks her about the Warehouse district, and she informs him that there is always gang warfare in that area, and she would never travel there alone at night.

While the majority drinks at the Blue Oyster, Vicks attempts to have his light (and possibly magical) mace identified. He finds a pawn shop, but the keeper wants to charge him 500 gold. He refuses, and leaves. He then heads over to the warehouse district, and sneaks into a smaller building that houses Warehouse information. He steals a map and heads to Warehouse 11. On the way, he is ambushed by a thug, who tried to sneak up on him. Luckily, he he made an excellent listen check, and an even more excellent tumble to do a front handspring and land facing the bandit, dagger drawn. It seemed as if luck was on Vicks' side, as the thug rushed toward him, battle-ax drawn in a charging attack. She gave a swing and Vicks nimbly ducked to the side! Vicks prepared himself to strike his foe with a dagger, but had somehow underestimated his own body weight when dodging her blow, and he fell to the ground his dagger slipping from his fingers. At this point, the rest of the adventurers were wandering the warehouse district, searching for number 11, when Valamonde heard the sounds of a scuffle! However, they were too late to save their friend. Vicks Underfoot died with a slice to the belly, and a decapitation. They arrived on the scene to find a woman stealing from the corpse of someone very small. Edison cast a "Command" spell on her, ordering her to drop everything. The spell succeeded, and she stood there dumbfounded while Valamonde, Garron, and Edison filled her with arrows and crossbow bolts. Alas, they were too late to save their friend, but they did protect his property from going into the hands of a common thug!

Lessons Learnt:
Clues are important. If you are a level 1 character, do not venture off on your own after hearing several warnings about danger. Poor Vicks. He was just trying to develop his character and (possibly, as he admitted to the crew later), achieve personal gain by selling Hyza. Unfortunately, it did not sound as if he heeded the warnings of Edison, who knew that this town was very cut-throat, or Ginger Butters, who said that there was gang activity and she would never venture alone into the Warehouse district. If your DM is telling you that a certain area is dangerous, you might want to at least make an attempt to hide and sneak down that creepy alley. I sometimes feel badly when characters die, though I have to admit, Vicks had it coming with this reckless behavior. AT LEVEL ONE. Though, he might have survived if he hadn't rolled a 1 at the worst possible moment.
Never underestimate the power of money. Often times, characters try to intimidate or charm their way through situations. However, Edison got Ginger Butters to give him her complete and undivided attention with some gold coin.

Next up, all characters left standing go to Warehouse 11! What is in store? Will Garrun try to use Dirk as a battering ram to open the door? Will Valamonde betray Hyza? All (or none) will be revealed with the next adventure in Illares! On that note, I leave you with an image of Valamonde, courtesy of Mat (formerly known as Vicks Underwood).

Day 1 - Somewhere Beyond the Sea

An excerpt from the diary of Vicks Underfoot

This week, our adventurers kicked off the campaign with some maritime enjoyment! Halfling rogue Vicks Underfoot and Elven singer-swordsman Valamonde Brightsong, strangers with common goals, both chartered the same ship to travel to the land of Saiha. Saiha is rumored to be an exotic land with little law and much fortune; perfect for two budding adventurers. The ship, The Olestra, is captained by Kynan "8 Fingers", a seemingly kind man with a deadly longsword. Valamonde regaled the crew with songs of seafaring, while Vicks overheard an argument between the captain and one of the crew concerning the cargo below deck.

The Captain and the irritated crewman, a fighter elf named Legli Dorn, went down into the crew deck and proceeded to have a heated discussion with one man guarding the cargo below. This six foot thug with black hair and a jumpy disposition stood all day in the same spot, and he introduced himself to Vicks as Dirk Fillibuster. Vicks, in an attempt to befriend Dirk, pickpockets him first, and tries to start a conversation. Dirk acts a little nervous, and doesn't reveal much. Valamonde, curious as to what is going on below the deck, attempts to move unnoticed toward the stairs. Unfortunately, he rolls a 1 (I relish every critical failure), and he face-plants onto the deck right at the top of the stairs. Luckily, he used some quick thinking, and pretended to be seriously injured; causing a distraction amongst the crew and the captain. This allowed Vicks Underfoot to sneak by, steal a bottle of bourbon from the captain's quarters, and share it with Dirk. It was then revealed that Dirk was guarding human cargo!

Vicks's diary, continued

Hyza Woodheart had chartered a ship to take her to a distant village in her search to find her father. However, she was kidnapped from her lodgings and held in the cargo hold of the Olestra. Dirk confessed that he and his gang, the Slyhorns, were being paid to kidnap and deliver her somewhere. However, Dirk doesn't want to be in a gang anymore. He was using this trip as an escape; a way to get away from the Slyhorns, by traveling to a foreign land and disappearing. He apologizes to Hyza, and gets exceedingly drunk. The night falls and the crew and our adventurers go to sleep after a tiresome day.

The next day, the captain sees a ship in the distance, flying a white flag and limping along. Since he is a noble fellow, he orders the crew to investigate. Valamonde, suspecting something fishy, heads up to the crow's nest to get a better look, while Hyza and Vicks stay below deck. As the Olestra nears the other ship, a woman can be seen on board, waving a large white flag back and forth. She asks for aid, saying that her captain is sick and medical supplies are needed. Kynan orders some medical supplies to be brought aboard. Then, much to his surprise, members of her crew jump out and reveal themselves as pirates. A red flag with a black octopus zips up the mast of the pirate ship, and several pirates attack the crew of the Olestra. A battle ensues! Valamonde encourages the crew with a brave song about defeating pirates, though he takes a serious injury by sword, Vicks slays the leader, Isabella, and Hyza joins the battle at the tail end to daze their foes. The adventurers and their allies were victorious, though Dirk Fillibuster was nearly slain. Hyza saves Dirk's life with her healing kit, while Valamonde and Vicks investigated the pirate ship. Loot was shared amongst the adventurers, though Vicks did steal a large amulet with a red stone from Isabella's quarters unnoticed. This is where we wrapped for the night.

I felt guilty starting this campaign with one character bound and gagged while the others were allowed to move freely. I think it was a risky decision, though it did end up turning out alright. I thought it might be helpful to Rhianna to see how the game was played, since it was her first time playing. As a DM, getting characters together can be an annoying task, and often does not work out as expected. The combat this week was not as difficult as I initially thought it would be, due to the fact that my characters, including the swashbuckler, Isabella, were rolling extremely poorly. Isabella dropped her rapier on the deck (I rolled a 1), and was easily finished off by Vicks.

Lessons Learnt: 
Level 1 characters can be ridiculously weak. Valamonde took a really hard hit toward the beginning of the battle, and was knocked down to 2 hit points. Combat can be very dangerous for new characters, and strategies in this game are very important, especially at the lower levels. Hyza, the character with the lowest hit points, made a great decision to stay below decks for most of the combat in order to avoid a possible death.
Knowledge skills are helpful. Having a bard, or other class with knowledge skills, can be really useful and/or help add some flavor to the story. Valamonde rolled extremely well and was able to identify the name of the semi-notorious pirate Isabella and her ship, The Octopussy.
Making friends can go a long way. Vicks immediately began to buddy up with the strong fighter, Dirk Fillibuster. His peace offering of bourbon helped reveal the mysterious cargo, and possibly made him a future ally.

New Campaign - Meet the Adventurers!

We met this past weekend to roll and create characters! Here are our new players:

Player: Mat
Character Name: Vicks Underfoot
Race: Halfling
Class: Rogue
Alignment: Chaotic Good
History: "Traveled around a lot with his Father. Settled down in the town of Wolfwood when he became tired of the traveling, and living in his fathers shadow. He got caught up with a band of thieves and ended up leaving town to escape the law. He has been wondering around since just looking for his place in the world and seeking out fortune and what not."
Vicks also will be keeping a campaign journal, so that will be cool to see! I hope to include some of this in future posts.

Player: Rhianna
Character Name: Hyza Woodheart
Race: Human
Class: Sorcerer
Alignment: (undisclosed)
History: "Hyza's mother had sorcery powers and passed them down to her. She died when Hyza was born. Her father left when she was a young girl. She is adventuring to learn more about her past and to possibly find her father. 
She grew up in an orphanage in a town called Syntheria, where she discovered she had strange powers. She enjoys hiking and being outside in nature. She has a familiar, a bat, who she named Synthy after the town she grew up in. She met him when he fell out of a tree she was reading a book under. 
She is ethically neutral, she is generally a good person and wants to be helpful, but can be a little hot-headed and careless sometimes." 
Rhianna has never played before, but she is getting the hang of it really quickly!

Player: David

Character Name:Valamonde Brightsong
Race: Elf
Class: Bard/Swashbuckler
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
History: Undisclosed. Little is publicly known about this elven swashbuckling bard. He is a singer, and will steal the hearts of all maidens in the land.
David is playing a multi-classed character to begin with. This, in my opinion, makes more sense than starting off as a bard or swashbuckler, and then gaining a level in a new class without any serious story input for his training. (i.e., he could be a pirate who had to meet a bard and learn from her before leveling up). Information on creating  a level 1 multi-class character can be found here: LINK.

All images on this page are courtesy of Mat, Vicks Underfoot. He drew them!
Next week: On to the adventure!

We got a bard, meet Abélard!

Well, this past week, we got good news and bad. The bad news, Biff, our sorcerer, could not come because he was jet-lagged from his trip to Paris. Yeah. So obviously I wasn't going to start the campaign with someone missing. The good news = We got a new player. Todd's neighbor, Fred, used to play D&D back in the day! So we got him all set up.

As Fred flipped through the PHB, he decided that he wanted to play a class that he had never played before. He initially wanted to be a druid. Now, I think that druids have potential to be really cool characters. They get a bit of pizazz and can be pretty versatile. However, for a first time player (or a returning player from long ago), set in a campaign of complete newbs, it's not ideal. Druids can get complicated: with spell-lists, an animal companion, and wildshape abilities, the character sheet more resembles a character pamphlet.

As a DM, my worst fear is letting my own prejudices influence the decisions of my players, and in turn, their player characters. I don't want my own bias to get in the way of someone playing the kind of character that they want, EVEN if they want to play an extremely annoying, self-righteous paladin. (Yuck.) I explained this to Fred, and added that if he really wanted to play a druid, I would help him get it all figured out. Luckily, for both of us, Fred also has some interest in music, lore, and tale-telling, so he decided to go with bard instead. Hooray! I love bards. I also think that for a first time player, bards make a nice class. They have a broad skillset, and make for fun role-playing opportunities. They also add a little bit of flair and can often set the tone for public relations.

Player: Fred
Character name: Abélard de la Sonnerie
Race: Half-elf
Class: Bard
I think Abélard is going to be a bit of a schmoozer amongst the wealthy, and while he might be good at making gold, his history also includes shopping sprees in seedy bars. Like many bards before him, Abélard is on a search for a great subject that will help him compose his masterpiece. Unlike many bards before him, Abélard plays the hurdy-gurdy.