| Game 1: January 30, 2016: "Count the Shadows..." |
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The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. We needed to see if they could work together when needed...to fight the battles that others never could. Unlike a regular campaign, where the characters venture off into obscurity when a new DM takes overr, we will keep the same characters for the entire adventure but rotate the DM. Each DM will take over the story and adding their own twists and flare. For the first game, Kenneth will be the DM and he is the one that will set the initial stage... |
The adventure begins in the Plutocratic city of Tul-Dnenire. The Sigal for this city is an anchor, a hammer, and a leaf entwined. My first order of business is to find work and a new party to travel with. After a day I find a new group of travelers and we secure the job of locating, rescuing, or recovering a short, soft spoken, but temperamental tax collector named Silver Claw. This tax collector was sent to a farm with three guards and has not been heard from for days. The farm is less than a day on horseback so this will most likely be a recovery mission. There is a minor incident in our first hours together that involved the halfling and a saddlebag but nothing unexpected from a halfling. We make it to the farmers house but no sign of the other field hands or the tax collector. After exploring the house we discover something sinister about the old man and old woman living in the house. They are missing their shadows. We take time to explore the entire house and discover some papers that we take with us. We are attacked by something evil in the basement and manage to defeat a few scarecrows that were guarding a trapdoor entrance to underground caverns. The old woman seemed generally surprised about the scarecrows so we decide to show mercy and let her back upstairs. We explore the caverns and discover that they are inhabited by a giant mushroom and a pot of Bullywog (yes, they really exist). We manage to defeat the creatures without sustaining serious injury. We were hoping for some clue about the farmer's son or the tax collector but there was nothing on the monsters or in this part of the cavern that provided any clues. |
This is the first campaign of the new Group project. Kenneth will be the first DM and will run a short campaign for a few weeks. He will also be playing an NPC for this campaign. The main component for this campaign is that we will all be part of the same group or guild. Tul-Dnenire is the main city in this game and is a plutocracy. The sigil of this city is an Anchor, a Hammer, and a leaf entwined. City is run by Dwarves, Elves, and a representative from the southern continent. Southern coast town. Similar to Waterdeep but without the copy write. We are all at the central area planning for the next day. While we are waiting for the next job or caravan we mingle with the rest of the crowd. I take time to converse with the locals for a land based job. The rest of the people in the room are taking time moving around the room. Day 1: 9:00am Once everyone is gathered we are offered a job for 15 gold for this
job. The job is for tax collectors for this farm called the
Hand Strickt Farm. Our job is to find the tax collector and
return him to the town. The tax collector had three guards
and has not been seen. We are basically being assigned to recover
the tax collector. The tax collector is white, 5 feet tall,
soft spoken but with a temper. We are told that his name is
Silver Claw. We are to bring back the tax collector or his
body. We also gain horses as long as we brong them back. The group is about the leave for the farm and the trip will take about a day for us to reach the farm. If we leave in the morning we will arrive at 4 in the afternoon. Only Jonnie is riding a horse and the rest of us are walking. Kevin gets caught trying to pick the saddle bag for Jonnie and thrown off the horse. Day 1: 4:00pm We see people in the fields working but they are not near us. There
is smoke coming out of the chimney. When we see the farm house
we are not able to tell any other features. There is very little
activity from the farm house. There are no animal pins and
there are no animals roaming around. The party is all hiding
around the farm house while Jonnie rides up to the house and announces
himself. I take up a position in the center of the road but
at a good distance behind Jonnie. We approach the farm house
and all prep for the introduction. After Jonnie's announcement a simple farm woman (Marie) and her husband (Earl) exits the house and starst to talk with us. I am too far to see if anything is out of order. The woman asks us if we are tired and if we want food. Jonnie senses something wrong with the woman. Ted is not able to sneak as he makes noise as he tries to move around. Kevin tries to pick the lock with his unsilenced tools but does not make it. Damn, those are some loud lock picks. As Ted and Kevin are around the back of the house I try to take a quick look around but dont see anything. After a few minutes an old man emerges and asks the rest of us to come inside and have lunch. Ted and Kevin are at the back of the house and Ted manages to pick the lock. As they manage to get the lock open the back door opens and asks what they are doing. Ted strikes the man with a nat20 and drops him without the use of a second strike. Ted is able to close the back door and the hide the body. Kevin is moving around the side of the house. I manage to see Ted carrying a body around the house. I take time to move to the opposite side of the house. We are all on edge and we are all moving to a combat position. I announce to the rest of the part that there is no one in the upstairs window. The old woman manages to see Ted around the house with the dead body. She asks what he is doing and Ted replies that he fell off the porch. Ted is so convincing the she believes him and rushes to see what happened. She asks if someone can heal. During the course of the tending request, Randal asks if we can eat him. Ted is able to open the back door and enter what appears to be a kitchen. Nothing is cooking and this room leads to another room with a large table. There are several chairs and they are arranged around the fireplace. I make it to the stairs and open the front door. When i get inside i can see the stairs leading up. As Steve, Randal, and jonnie are comforting the woman they notice that she does not have a shadow. They all notice this and they try to subdue her. Steven grabs her shoulder and tries to hold her down. As they are trying to restrain the woman the body of earl disappears. The entire entity of earl, cloths and body, disappears and fades away. When Steven sees the woman start to try to get away he tries to restrain her. I take the time to try to move to the top of the stairs. I am not able to move with a stealthy step and when i breach the top of the landing i can see three closed doors. Jonnie comes up the stairs after me and also is ready to take on the top landing. Kevin manages to get around the house and get to the bottom of the stairs. Randal also takes a place at the bottom of the stairs. Ted is able to move past some of the group but stopped in front of Jonnie. When i get to the top of the landing i take a minure to try to hear at the three doors. One of the doors has light from under it. Jonnie makes it up and gets ready to kick in a door. I move to the door that is not occupied and i take time to open the door. The door opens onto a room that appears to be a bedroom. The room appears to be used but not recently. There is a door at the adjacent wall that appears to be unlocked. Jonnie opens his door and this room appears to be an office. This is the only room that has a window. There are several papers on the desk and a candle. When jonnie takes time to look at the desk he can tell that these are financial in nature. The numbers appear to be off and it looks like someone was tring to hide something. Kevin tries the thid room but it turns out to be a linnen closet. It is dark and there are no windows so his vision is limited. Ted moves past me and enters the room off the smaller bedroom. The
room appears to be a more elaborte building. When he enters
the room he tries to search the dresser. He is only able to
locate a silver piece in a sock. I am able to see him do that
but it doesn's matter. I take time to search in my room. Steve questions the old woman and she tells him that her son sometimes goes to the basement. She even offers to open the door. The only odd thing is that the basement door is locked from the outsite and not from the inside. It is most likely that the son is locked in the basement. I take a few minutes to review the notes and they only appear to be school arcane notes. i still take them with me but i do not think they are important. Kevin takes movement to the lower floor and gets in a position where he can see the back door. Ted asks the for key, which is being kept in the kitchen. The general consensis is that we are heading to the basement. We take the carpet outside and we all move outside to open the doors. Ted throws the carpet down and no traps. There is no light in the basement. Ted manages to take the torch and throw it on the rug. There are some crates and some other items. There is a stone bench that has been used for meat preparation. There are two scarecrows on either side of the stairs but they appears to be normal. Ted moves to the end of the room and opens it. The room appears to be a cold room. With a search check they find only a gold piece. I take time to search the room for secret rooms but fail to find anything. It is time to take this conversation to the woman. - kevin; attacks and hits - kevin; manages to crit the creature - kevin; kills one of the scarecrows We take time to seach the scarecrows but nothing in the bodies. As we move upstairs the old woman is at the back stairs asking what happened. She appears to be surprised about the scarecrows. When we bring her in the room she seems surprised about the trapdoor. The decision is made to let her go back upstairs and take time to orgainixe her financial papers. As she leaves we drop the carpet down the hole for light. Once we are in the cavern there is a torch on the wall that is not
producing a flame. It is determined that the torch is a magical
everburing torch. We move down the tunnel and we get to a field
of mushrooms. Ted is able to view a path through the mushrooms
and he takes the lead. Jonnie takes the second position and
the rest of the party comes through. Randal tries to determine
if these mushrooms are dangerous as he walks through the mushrooms. He
thinks that most of them aare editle but they are among poisonous
ones. As steven is walking through the mushrooms he is attacked
by a purple mushroom. Jonnie is able to determine that there
are severla of them. We are at the beginning the cavern but we hear something moving
in the water. It appears to be a type of frog. We toss
a coin at the frog and it stands up and gets angry. We are
sure that they are Bullywogs. SIGIL |