To the Sword Cost, Wait, No, Absolutely Not There…
So. Turns out everyone was cool with a soft-reset. Oh, I mean from the Goose Game in the previous article. We had played without Nate that night and I was going to hand over my half-giant fighter. Lurking in the dark space in the back of my mind that I would build a character that would interest Nate if we got a chance to play this game again and seamlessly pass on my hero. But, it still felt a little disingenuous to hand him a premade character whereas everyone else made theirs. Especially if I was planning on continuing the game past a one-off.
Kera had made herself a pink-haired gnomish rogue named Two Left Feet already, and well, as an adorable individual that tends to be stabby, rogue is really the class for her to play. Ryan created a hobbit, er, Halfling, I totally mean Halfling named Lindal Star-eye. Lindal is a halfling, you know, because Ryan can’t stop himself from eating the game night snacks as if he hadn’t eaten a meal in the previous week and and a Warlock because he planned to cast Eldritch Blast. Every Turn. Ian had a dwarven cleric before him named Thimdig, son of Thimdig, whom himself was also son of another dwarf named Thimdig, etc… and was more than willing to cast guiding bolt and heal the other player characters, regardless of the setting.
Entirely unprepared and but excited to change direction on the fly, I turned to the Adventures in Faerûn book while Nate made a character. He made himself a Barbarian named Tibbz, which was pretty much the same character, with the same name, as he played in the first Season, only in D&D this time instead of Pathfinder. Within the glorious pages of the Dungeon Master Expansion book I dove, and looking for a life preserver. To that end, I found one.
Toward the beginning of the book, there was a section of adventure ideas starting at level one and blasting off from there. The only idea I had was: Stay the fuck away from Baldur’s Gate. As of writing this article, we are still playing Ryan’s campaign based off the original Baldur’s Gate video game. And Ian knows just too fucking much, as both of them have played the first game more than any normal mortal should have been able to within a single lifetime. Too much. Fuck That. I wanted to go to Waterdeep.
To that end I turned a one-page Sword Coast based adventure, which was of course supposed to be based just outside Baldur’s Gate, and moved it north to outside of Waterdeep. By the time Nate was done bullshitting a character, I was ready to proclaim “fuck it” an wing a goddamned game for my friends. What a fucking blast I had turning that quick adventure idea and part of a map form the DM guide into a 6 hour adventure. It was rather nice to have a little structure and add my personal flair to it. Now I just needed to think of a way to start the game…
Robber Baron
After something like seventeen seconds of Google-fu I had discovered the seed of the adventure I needed: the Day of Wonders. Crazy-ass invention celebration. Done. That was easy.
We quickly went around the table. After informing them that the Day of Wonders was a week away and that was the direction everyone was going, I asked them who they were and why they were going. Tibbz was coming south from Icewind Dale, having taken a job to escort a merchant to Waterdeep, and subsequently telling them to fuck off after a disagreement. After the argument, he took a ride on a shitty cart next to a dwarf that was going the same direction. That dwarf was the cleric Thimdig, whom had found a little work after strangely spending time as a ship hand, and as chance would have it, had chosen a god that aligned with the impending Day of Wonders.
The cart stopped off at a crossroad where the Long Road and the High Road meet just north of Waterdeep, leaving the travelers at the Bulldog Bar and Tavern which occupied the center town. Well, town was a bit of an overstatement for what amounted to a lil’ hamlet which didn’t appear to have a name (since I just invented it for story purposes) but came to be referred to as Mudville due to the quality of the roads. Within the Bulldog, Thimdig discovered Two Left Feet, whom he had met in the past: turns out they had gotten in trouble together up to and including some jail time. The pink-haired gnome was drunk and failing to pick-pocket the hungry and annoyed Halfling Lindal who had the misfortune of sitting next to her.
With only a few moments to go over the Robber Baron mission, I went with the Situation and the Hook supplied in the book: Bandits were holed up in a pair of towers, taking toll payments from those that wanted to pass by and had even taken a few hostages. A local trader named Rolf ran in, waving a ransom note and desperate for help, his brother Adon had been taken hostage and they were demanding ransom for his release. Tibbz was already tired of the company, by which I mean Kera and Ian having a blast roleplaying their drunken characters and was more than willing to help. So was Findal, whom lost his family to bandits per his background story and the reason for his hermit background. The drawf and gnome followed, to help the others out. Lucky for all, the gnome rogue sobered up before they made it to the towers.
It is a solid three days of walking to Waterdeep from Mudville, and it was a whole day of walking to get to the toll booth set up by the bandits. They left immediately, hoping to have time to get there, solve the situation, and get back with time left to get to Waterdeep in time. Moving the story along, we got there with little effort and no interruptions.
With some cunning prestidigitation, Findal caused the mastiff on defense to run off into the woods looking for a cat that didn’t exist. Kera rolled a hell of a stealth check and hid along the broken stone tower far better than any level one rogue ought to be able to in preparation for a back-stabbing. Tibbz and Thimdig strolled up to see what would happen. Turns out they were asked to pay a toll. Three gold each. The Drawf insisted that he had a pass and they should be let through, managed to get the two guards frustrated and then after a few more moments of roleplaying, Thimdig did the very cleric thing and took a swing at a bandit.
His die came up a natural 20.
He splattered brains all over the stone wall with a Warhammer. The barbarian got a little frustrated after whiffing a few attacks, and seeing Kera’s rogue get a near perfect sneak attack hit and killed the scout outright. Not to be shown up all day Tibbz cut his way through two bandits in one swing with a couple good rolls and the cleave ability of his axe. Good times.
Also, Ian rolled so damn well on his handle animal checks that I slowly turned a guard mastiff from aggressive, to passive, and eventually to straight-up friendly. Sure. I guess we have a dog. Apparently his dwarf carries a nearly unlimited supply of sausages in his bag.
They moved on and absolutely fuckin’ wrecked the bandits in the other tower and then found their way down. We descended the ladder. A stealth check was fumbled and that brought the bad guys running. Tibbz smashed one to death as he rounded the corner and mortally wounded another. Got into melee all while an archer did lots of poke damage.
An unknown cleric of Oghma burst out a door, proclaimed that shit had gone too far, healed friends and foes alike. That was Wendi Rueh, and her brother Mardon came out to try to stop the carnage. After a brief vocal altercation, they found Adon, not only healthy but in an unlocked cell eating pie.
I injected a lot of Tyson-style grey into the story here. In my version of the story, the Rueh family is being defamed by the Eomanes, a rich and dangerous family in Waterdeep. They were taking tolls to try to hire mercs or adventurers to help combat the threat the Eomanes represent and clear their family name. Not only that, but Adon was in on it: turns out it was his idea to split the “ransom” with the Rueh’s. Seems he has some debts with some bad people (in my head it was the Eomanes) and his brother wouldn’t pay off his problems again.
Findal and Thimdig really tore into both Adon and Mardon, pointing out that highway robbery was not going to help anyone. They also thrashed Wendi’s morals, having discovered someone bashed to death in the jail. Turns out the head thug had killed the other hostage when ransom wasn’t paid. While they were interrogating the siblings, Two Left Feet was off breaking into locked doors and giggling about finding treasure: the coinage they had secured from tolls, some gems, a potion and a scroll.
Things escalated quickly: characters were roleplayed well and it was universally agreed on that they could not stand for banditry, even if there was a thin veneer of justification behind it. The Rueh family was ruined and their money gone, Mardon coudn’t think of another way to fight back against the injustice. As tension grew, the thug tried to attack and the team fought back, killing the thug boss and Mardon.
Dramatically dragging the flanged mace slowly on the ground as he approached, Findal threatened the cleric with the weapon of the fallen thug boss; she broke down and spilled the proverbial beans about trying to support her brother and how things got out of control and how she was ashamed. He claims he wasn’t ganna bash her head in, but, well, we have already determined that Findal hates bandits. So, maybe she spoke up just in time. Anyway, they looted the place, took Wendi as a hostage, and the barbarian shouldered the dead hostage, trying to bring closure to their family or friends.
Carrying the corpse around still, Tibbz brought it to the constable’s house, attempting to determine if it was a local, and upon finding that there was a bounty out for the thug they killed, he decided to give the money to the town to help the people of Mudville.
Not sure from where the idea came from, but the group decided they wanted to leave the town better off than when they had arrived. Tibbz gave a handful of gold to the proprietor of the Bulldog to feed the locals and took off for Waterdeep and impending celebration.
On the Road Again
Ian bought a cart and some horses along the way, and the group and the dog rode down the path to Waterdeep, with Wendi in toe. It was getting late in the afternoon when they came across a Priory dedicated to Lathander and a place to rest the night. They parked their new-to-them cart, and went in for some dinner and rest. They intended to leave Wendi there to work off her morale indiscretions.
As night began to fall, the peaceful night was rent by screams from outside. The group got to the door in time to see a goblin riding a wolf cut down a pilgrim as they ran for the door. In the distance, they could see both mounted and unmounted warriors charging towards them. The door was closed and barred.
Good thing they rested up before they left, because there will be no rest that night. Time for a siege. I am hoping to make the adventure feel like one of those one-location horror movies. Can the adventurers survive the night? How many of the clergy and Pilgrims will survive?
Turns out we will likely have to wait for our Baldur’s Gate game to end before we will find out. Oh, the suspense!
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Tyson
Obsessive and neurotic collector of little plastic men, novels about the same little plastic men and paints to make the little plastic men pretty. Married to Kera, who puts up with him and pretends that she doesn’t hear him speaking to the little plastic men in between making pew pew noises in the hobby room. Requires adult supervision. A menace to himself but rarely to others. More beard than man
