Campaign Journal 11 - Visiting Talengard

We last left our heroes in Linden, preparing to journey to see the sages of Talengard, in the hopes of selling 65-70 antique books, and potentially gaining other information...

The party left Linden on Tuesday April 30, heading east on the Great North Road, in two horse-drawn carts. They had 65-70 antique books to sell, a 6 foot by 6 foot antique carved wooden artwork panel depicting a fight between several warriors and a dragon, as well as some pieces of salvaged arms and armor of modest value. These would all be sold to raise as much money as possible, and to gain information that would help the party's future explorations. Mordecai (NPC fighter) expressed an interest in cashing out his share of the treasure so that he continue a few days further on into Alsberg, where he could visit his father and give him some money.

The trip east through Wegley and Nandra was uneventful, and the party reached Talengard on Tuesday May 7th, 8 days out of Linden. Duncan and Niam (wizard and rogue) were dispatched to meet with the sages of Talengard regarding a potential sale of the books, while the remainder of the party stayed in the town of the same name.

Talengard and the Grand Duchy of Rimini (6 mile - Hexographer)

Duncan and Niam first met with a minor administrator, but when the size and rarity of the collection they were trying to sell became apparent, Oleran Graybeard, Master of the Library, came to discuss matters with them himself. Much of the day was spent in allowing time for numerous sages in various specialties to exam the works, after which some negotiating was needed. The sages valued the collection at 6,700 GP (a princely sum!), but as Bertram, the Master of Coin, explained, that was an amount of coin that they could easily come up with. The next day, it was agreed that 2,500 would be paid in cash, and 4,200 would be paid in "credit" for future services where the sages could be of use. The party was also provided with a much better map of Onoria than the very simple sketch map which was all they had access to previously, and a couple of small journals of adventurers who had traveled the area in the past.

Before leaving, Eustace of Jasla, the sage they had saved near Castle Langborne, and his mentor Bethziral (an elderly halfling) came to visit with the party. Knowing of their interest in Castle Langborne, Bethziral had some additional information to share. Based on her researches, she said that she believed Alferith Langborne was a direct descendent of the Tramantine family, and that was probably one of the reasons he returned to Brin-Dendra (as it was known in the Elder days). The Tramantine family were the Dukes of Sesteval, which roughly covered what is now the Shearingvale and surrounding lands in southeast Onoria. The other reason she believes he went to Brin-Dendra is because of the legends of something called the Soulfire Beacon. Legend has it that the Soulfire Beacon was the culmination of the Tramantine family's researched into dark magic. Some tales say that it is a powerful artifact that uses sacrificial life forces from the living to summon and control the dead. Others say that it is some sort of gate or portal to the underworld, or to a different plane of existence where the souls of the dead rest. Bethziral said that the only specific mention she had uncovered as to the location of the Soulfire Beacon is that it is near a place in deepest mines under the town, a place where the delvings had broken through into the Underdark. It is a place said to be holy to the duergar (the dark dwarves).

After spending the night in Talengard town, the party decided to head to Greva (one day southeast) and then on to the city of Rimini (another day east). In Rimini, they would change their new coins into gems for portability, sell the carved artwork panels, and buy some better gear while they were in a large city.

After two full days in Rimini, the group left on Monday May 13, and had an uneventful trip west along the Great North Road and back to Linden, where they arrived on Tuesday the 21st.

Next - And now what?

GM Commentary - This was a full three hour session where not a single die was rolled in anger. I was OK with it, as some important things happened from the standpoint of building out the world and setting up future adventures (at least from a myth/legend and history of the world standpoint). I hope the players were OK with it, as there was experience awarded for goals and information learned and gathered.

Campaign Journal 10 - The East Laboratory

Further Explorations of Castle Langborne's Dungeons

We left our heroes in a secure room in the East Basements level, bedding down for the night to rest and recuperate.

The night passed uneventfully, and in the morning, as the party was leaving the chamber, sharpeyed Melior the Druid noticed some faint scratch marks on the floor in the southeast corner of the room. This turned out to be a secret door leading to more stairs descending further. The stairs showed years of undisturbed dust.

After descending another 40 feet or so, the party came out into what was once an alchemical laboratory or something similar. There were old stone and wooden tables and stools, many shelves lining the walls, and a large amount of very old arcane equipment. Storage rooms to the east were explored.

Castle Langborne's East Labs sub-level

When the door to the north (right in the picture) was opened, a waft of fresh air swept across the party, and a magical light began to glow, illuminating what was obviously a library. Stone alcove shelves lined the walls, and a table and chairs were in the center of the room. The room seemed to have magical climate control, and the combination of steady temperature and humidity levels had preserved approximately 100 of the books, tomes, grimoires and sets of scrolls stored here (not all were salvageable). These books were made of all imaginable kinds of materials, and were written in a variety of languages. A few hours of going through the books and finding the ones that were still in good condition made the characters realize that they had found a treasure trove of great value. Perhaps 25-30 of the works would be useful in forming the foundation of a wizard's library for Duncan, and the remainder would be of value to sages or collectors. They covered all sorts of subjects (alchemy, biology, mathematics, natural history, astronomy, history, etc), and it was estimated that they might be worth thousands of gold in the right hands.

In searching the library, a secret door was found in the east wall which led to a short tunnel. In the tunnel was a small chest sitting on a wooden crate. The crate was filled with decaying green and gold clothing, obviously the livery colors of someone's household. The small chest had a dozen pieces of jewelry and a note. The note (written in an older dialect of high elven) said:

My dearest Estrellia, Despite your youth, you show the signs of having a gift in the Art. In these dangerous times, that is both a gift and a curse. I have been called to the battlefield, and leave in the morning. Rumor is that General Tamarka fell yesterday, although I know not if this is true. They say that a demon-led orc horde has crossed into the Central Plains, and threatens to overrun everything north of the Serintan. I know that you will be using the library, and so I hope that you will find this. I have set aside these things that should be of help to you should you choose to follow the path that I, and many others of our ancestors have taken. –Grandpa Max

Duncan was given a chance to make an Arcana roll to see if this meant anything to him. He would need to roll a natural 20 to succeed...and rolled a natural 20. Duncan's reading on famous wizards of the past allowed him to recognize that this probably referred to Maximilian Baroka and his granddaughter Estrellia Baroka (known as Estrellia the Savage). These were two of the most famous of a family of wizards (Conjurers especially) from late in the Elder times. This letter itself was probably also of value to a sage or collector.

Among the pieces of jewelry, two items of magic were discovered. One was identified to be a Ring of Protection +2, and one was identified to be Bracers of Fire Resistance. The ring went to Duncan (?) and the bracers went to Malachy.

The decision was made that what they had found thus far was realistically all that they could carry, and that they would travel back to Linden, and then on to Talengard to sell the books.

An ankheg (a gigantic earth-tunneling praying mantis type creature that spits acid) was killed on the way home. The trip was otherwise uneventful.

Next - The party has decided to head to the sage enclave of Talengard in the Grand Duchy of Rimini, approximately a week's journey east on the Great North Road.

GM Commentary - Outside the game, we discussed experience for non-combat goals and discoveries and how I want this to open up the storyline and the choices that the players can choose to make. We also touched on the fact that we now have more characters than comfortably make a medium sized party (and than we have players who regularly show up), and how we should deal with this. I don't know that we have a good answer yet...

The issue with our party size, characters and players is this:

We originally had four player characters and two NPCs to fill out a reasonable (and survivable) party of 1st level characters. Then we gained another adult player and a teenager whose father would sit in and make sure she was doing ok (and to see what D&D was all about). All three of the new people are enjoying the game, and show up pretty much all the time. The teenager has rolled her own new character, so we now have a dwarven paladin. The new adult is content to adopt the NPC druid as his own and make it his player character, which is great. That gives us 7 characters. The teen's father is into it, and we are going to create a character for him (he has been playing our rogue, who is a player character whose owner can rarely make it). That will give us 8. Eight is a lot. Perhaps too many. Now that characters are all 3rd level (and not that far from 4th), they have a lot more hit points, spells, abilities, etc. Challenging a party of 8 in combat encounters would be challenging for me (the GM). Eight characters in a dungeon crawl feels like a small army to me.

So I'm not quite sure what to do. We can play with all 8 and adapt. We can make the one remaining NPC (fighter) go away, which would get us down to 7. We could make the campaign more "one-shot" oriented where each playing session could be tailored to "you do 3-3.5 hours of gaming in doing xyz then you all go back to town at the end of every session". Whoever shows up at the session would have their character involved; those that didn't wouldn't (XP gaps would develop as two of our players can rarely make it). Or we could keep the narrative as it is and bend reality to say that players who are not present at sessions just vanish in and out of the narrative depending on when they can be present. From a story telling standpoint, I'm not sure I can happily get my head around that. We'll have to see where this goes...