I typically try to engage the party by recapping the adventure, by making them try to remember what happened. One of the players, stated, isn't that your job, and I responded, "Yes! I know what happened, and I will fill in what you missed, but by getting you to tell me what happened, I accomplish two things: 1) I get you thinking about what you did in the last game and then what you were going to do next, and 2) I get to see what you thought was important in the last session, which allows me to taylor the adventure in the future to make it more enjoyable. So I asked what happened in the adventure.
The results of what happened the last time were less than stellar. There was a bar fight, an encounter where the encounter monster got tired of waiting for them to do something and wandered of, a few interactions in the village of Sunnydale, particularly with a cleric named Adam (whom I did not think was important but they did) and found a bunch of empty temples and houses and so me really strange people, mostly fearful and rude. Lastly they mentioned that the party split into two groups, one wanted to talk to the outpost of the Duke and the other wanted to go the other direction and talk to people with the goal of meeting the others at the Temple of Auristia. The first group learned about the area and determined that the outpost was safe. The other group had a conversation that led them to believe that there was some suspicious folk on that end of town, and there was something up at the old Inn a while back.
Pretty good synopsis.
The first group left the outpost and headed to the South only to see a sign with a sheaf of wheat and a foaming beer stein hanging out from a building that looked like a great gathering place, a great place to meet people and ask questions and maaaybe a good place to have a drink. "Priorities man!", they said. Inside there were a group of people at three tables and a bartender behind the counter. Stepping in the crowd seemed insular and rude, but the bartender called them over and ask them where they were from and what they were doing here. They Gnomish Paladin was forward and offered information freely, the 1/2Elf Bard was more circumspect. The bartender reached up to the top shelf and blew the dust off of a bottle of sherry and offered them each a dram, he poured three glasses— one for him. The customers seeing this, complained that they never got a belt of the good stuff. The Bard, thought that some of them were disingenuous, but the bartender raised his glass with a practiced hand and drank from his, so out of politeness he sipped from his glass. The gnome quaffed the entire dram, and both of the characters rolled a save for poison, which I stated it was a Constitution Check, because the alcohol was very strong. The sherry burned on the way down the 1/2 elf's throat, it was the good stuff; the gnome choked and sputtered.
…
The four, Elf Druid, Dwarvish Fighter, 1/2 Orc Priest and the Ranger (absent), headed to the store that they were pointed to earlier and entered, it was a farm store and there were lots farming equipment but also a weapons and armour as well. The store owner was very surly, more so when it was clear that they were not looking to buy anything. They asked questions and he answered them gruffly and impatiently. They noticed that his sign had a religious icon of Auristia on it. They knew that Auristia sanctified financial transactions. They hit upon the idea that the temple of Auristia was the best place to get the pulse of the people and what was wrong and right about the village.
They headed out for the temple right away. But, while doing that, the Io the Elf, spotted something suspicious about a building they were passing. The building was an inn and it was partially burnt, which was odd, because the area is very prosperous and even an accidental fire would be quickly cleaned up and the inn back up and running. They entered the inn to take a look. The light coming through the boarded up windows was enough to inspect the inside. There was a burnt spot in the center and broken stools, with over turned tables. Broken glass littered the ground near the bar. They poked around and they discovered a few things that were peculiar. There was beer still in a few of the tuns behind the bar and the ale was still good. (Priorities!) The edge of the bursts spot showed signs of a blood stain. Once they saw that they immediately noticed a spray mark of blood on a nearby post, a sign of sword work. Lastly they discovered the marks of passage through the dust and ash leading to a door and then down stairs into cellar filled with rotting food stuffs….
…
Moolite the gnome, and Callidan the Bard were getting tired of the conversation in the inn. A truly marvelous telling of the Defeat of the Earth Dragon story had only drawn three patrons to talk to him and the sherry was starting to have an effect on him, a slight slurring of his words. The gnome was thinking he definitely needed some fresh air, he was dizzy and his vision was playing tricks on him the people he was talking to, three was starting to look like six, no nine people. He looked to the door and saw that for some reason it was barred and there were four? six? no, two bouncers with naked steel in hand. He started to fall, not a long fall being only three feet tall, but still an undignified fall, drunk from one glass of sherry… "Scoria, aid me!", he called out and he healed himself of poisoning damage, as a green light played across his body in a glowing halo. He picked himself off the floor, the effects of the toxin cleansed from his body…
…
Picking their way through the completely dark cellar, the group was able to make its way with no difficulty as three of the four had dark-vision. The path lead to a door. They tried it and it was locked. The Cleric of Stomidia, Warhammer in hand, swung it at the latch and broke through the door, revealing the door was barred from the inside. Vistia the Dwarf, unslung her battle-axe and underarmed hit the door trying to knock the bar off the door, but merely broke the door in a different place, nearly shearing the bar in twain, but still it held. Phil, the with one Orc parent, shattered the bar with his last hit and the door flung open and The dwarf rushed in. Three large forms loomed a lighter shade of grey than the background and rushed to attack. Phil cut off the large foul smelling creatures from approaching the rest of the group. Two of the critters lunged toward the axe and board and on went for the warhammer of the Storm Goddess. The axe scored one of the attackers who flinched back, opening up the dwarf for a nasty 1-2-3 combination attack of claw-claw-bite and dealing two successes a critical claw attack and a vicious bite. The cleric was able to absorb the blows with his armour and the Druid sprayed it with poison with little effect. The stench of the creatures nearly caused the characters to double over and stain their boots with lunch, but they managed to hold it in for the fight. (successful saves vs poison) The fighter undaunted, but close to going down, lunged forward and struck at the one she injured and hit it shearing of a leg with a hit killing it. The death of its companion gave the second pause and it missed her, rather that or it was licking its claws of the tasty dwarf victuals, it got just before. The cleric seeing his companion in dire straights called down power from the Storm to replenish her, and the red light extended to her healing her to full. The third seeing its chance clawed the cleric and drew blood that it it began licking with glee. The Druid throws a small gout of flame at the beast, but missed, igniting some trash behind them lighting the room up and casting gruesome shadows around the room.
…
His mind cleared, the gnome sees the danger and the bar patrons begin advancing on the two. He dances back away from the four around him and throws a javelin, impaling one. The 1/2 elf, mind still clouded with the poison, albeit less than the Gnomes potent dose, reacts too late and two of the patrons smash him with chairs, nearly knocking him out. He sees that they are badly out numbered and he sees that if he stays here, he is going to lose. He sings a sleep song on the fellows moving towards the Paladin and Mistwalks out of the inn through a window. The paladin sees his opponents fall asleep but that his companion has bugged out and decides that fighting a losing battle is not a good idea so runs after the bard and dives through a window to escape.
He lands near the Bard, and they see the constabulary, conveniently on patrol. They shout for aid and they come close to inspect them and inquire how they can assist.
…
The dwarf lines up to duel the fetid Swamp troll and finds that they are equally matched. The Cleric looses patients and burns the one before it with fire, spraying from his hands red as the colour of his goddesses light. The fire licks the rooms edge turning yellow orange and igniting the wall. The light bathes the creatures in light, enabling them to be seen in their full hideous glory. They are tall, close to seven feet tall and their brown grayish skin seeps with smelly musk, their long arms end with sharp claws and their mouths are lined with sharp teeth, their necks, bound with muscle make their noggin to be a bump on their body. The Druid sprays the burning Troglodyte with poison. The ranger, now seeing the foe hits the uninjured one with an arrow in its 'neck'. The fighter, winds up and brings her blade down on the foe cleaving open it's chest, spattering the wall and extinguishing some of the flame. The warhammer knocks the final trog down. They root through the room and uncover a stash of coins and gems. They take some time to rest and heal their wounds. Before continuing to the temple to meet their companions. It is clear that their is something sinister up in the town, and attack in an inn and troglodytes living underneath.
They enter the temple and at first all seems fine. The priestess greets them as Misha Devi and asked them politely that they stick to the central hall as they are clearly not parishioners. They ask and she tells them the doors lead to libraries and personal quarters. She also tells them that all is fine in the village and she has seen no drop off in popularity in the temple, in fact with the other temples being abandoned, due to lack of worshippers, she has seen more people coming for Brightday services. The characters seem a little worried over her statements, except the Dwarf who detects no deceit. They split up to look over the room. The Elf, remembering the many hours she spent polishing Xeric's statue, sees the dust and dirt on the idol as troubling. She notices idle graffiti on the side as well, disgraceful! She mentions it to the Cleric and he inspects it and discerns its significance, the symbol of the Dark God Drogath. The hairs stand up on back of his hairy neck. He confers with his fellows, there is something up with this temple, they need to come back her in force, and they elect to go find their companions.
…
The constabulary listen to their tales, one accompanying the gnome as it gets its wargoat and lance and the other two talk with the bard. The listen, but the Bard feels that they are merely humouring him and his suspicions are confirmed when they draw steel. He was not caught flatfooted this time and sings a sleeping song on them and one crumples to the ground in sleep and the other loads his crossbow as Calledan decides to run to the Duke's Outpost. He feels pain and sees the bolt penetrate his front from behind. H falls to the ground.
The paladin hears the commotion out front and bounds toward his got, and gets nicked by the Sheriff. He gets his goat to charge forward to attack, but the goat is not a battle hardened steed and it bauks at butting the foe with the sword out. The gnome holds on tight to the billy goat's rack and swings his mace clipping and bouncing off the heavily armoured foe, who stabs him with the sword splashing some blood on to the stall.
…
The foursome head around the mill pond hoping to run into the two others.the disrepair of the west side of the village turned to well repaired homes and the unease to the group increased. Where were their companions; they should have met up with them. They passed another in, one with a sign of a sleeping red dragon and a woman sweeping the porch. She greeted them heartily, the most friendly that any had so far met. She bade them in for a nice warm meal. They expressed their regret, as they were looking for their companions. The innkeeper sighed, that she had not seen them, but then mentioned that across the river was another inn, the Golden Grain Inn, and lately their friendly competition had become strained. She did not approve of the unsavory group that hung out their. If they are somewhere, they would likely be there. She suggested that if they found them they should stay in the Slumbering Serpent, than there.
The elf noticed that one of the buildings on the other side of the river had an open window and the curtains were blowing through. When they got near she noticed that there was broken glass in the frame and on the ground outside. They at once began to investigate the grounds. A spot of recent blood was seen and they began to take a closer look. They found a spray of blood in the stall with Moo's goat. They entered the inn looking for their missing companions. They entered the building and saw three groups of farmers at tables and a fellow at the bar talking to the bartender. The bartender, seeing the adventurer's reaches up to the top shelf and blows the dust off the bottle and greets the four, "Strangers, at last! Please come and enjoy a drink of our local Sherry, on the house?"
…
The gnome and the Bard woke surprised, not in their halls of their appropriate deity, but in the dark, tied up, the gnome on the bed and the 1/2 Elf trussed up hanging from the ceiling gag well placed. It was dark. The gnome was sloppily tied up and easily removed his one arm and started working on the other knots. Calledan freed a hand but got not much further before the gnome cut him down. They geared up, as their captors left their equipment at hand. They crept down the hall and over to the stairs. They slowly crept down the stairs expecting to fight to the death again. There before them they saw their companions and heard the barman speak, "Strangers, at last! Please come and enjoy a drink of our local Sherry, on the house?"
They motioned to their friends and gestured the ill intent of e people here and motioned to attack to kill, to start in 5, 4, 3,…. The bard ran off the last step and leapt onto the bar and shouted a battle cry and slashed at a patron., the gnome did the same but lept on to the long table and engaged another Paton. Io charged forth and set a patron in fire. The cleric engaged a second patron at the same table and Vistia charged the third at that table striking him dead. The suddenness of the attack wore of slowly and the Companions of Freaks, attacked again two more patrons went down and the bard sang to inspire the party. The patrons moved to counter attack. The melee begin in earnest and stools and chairs were thrown, the bartender and the costomer dropped to the ground and hid over the next half minute there was a fury of attacks and many wounds sustained, but the bulk of the patrons were downed, the bartender and the last patron attempted to backstab the characters. They were struck down and stabilized for future questioning.
They shut the inn down, locked it up tight and barred the door. Set a watch. They had wanted to abandon the town for the night and head back to the safety of the woods, but for two problems. First, they had prisoners and there were a number of people they did not trust in the village, including the constabulary and an unknown number of villagers. Secondly, this was where the action was and the cabin in the woods slept two only. They had cleaned out the top floors of the inn and found a treasure. All told they had a sizable cache of treasure.
*** At the end of this day, they have attained Second Level. Some new powers, more hit points, more spells, and prisoners to interrogate. ***
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