July 6, Saturday - After fighting the misshapen giants, the group settles down for a night's sleep under overcast skies. During the night, the skies clear, and a full moon is revealed. A slight breeze picks up, coming from the south, and with it comes the sound of distant drums. The drums play intermittently, rising to a frenzied pitch at certain times and then dying away. The group decides not to investigate and the rest of the night passes uneventfully, if nervously and not very restfully.
A day's march with the 12 civilians in tow brings the group to the tiny village of Felrin. Four of the civilians leave the group here; the rest will stay with the group to Turil.
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| Turil and southeastern approaches (Hexographer, 1 mile scale) |
July 7, Sunday - Another 16 mile march brings the party to the city of Turil (for the first time). The remaining 8 civilians express their thanks and go their separate ways. It's late in the afternoon.
While crossing the Caravan Grounds heading to the Slanted Shingle Inn in the Wagontown section of the city (outside the walls on the southwest side), Baldur Kersk slips his bonds and makes an improbable escape through the crowd. Niam the rogue, the quickest of the group, is unable to catch him in the crowd.
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| The City of Turil , Wagontown section at lower left |
The party gets to the Inn, bullies the owner into letting them into Kersk's room, and are able to find (and take) the 325 gold pieces hidden in a sack under a loose floorboard. They then head to the Laughing Goblin Tavern and stake out the place, hoping to see that man the Kersk described to them.
Malachy (the barbarian) and Arian (the elven sorcerer) see a man matching the description while thy are tarrying (and dining) at an inn across the square from the Laughing Goblin. They waylay him outside the place, and drag him into a nearby alley. He is a shady businessman by the name of Thurbrin Weirich, and is easily strong-armed into telling what he knows.
Weirich was hired by a minor noble named Nath Ravenblood. His instructions were to find someone to take the assignment of capturing 50 people and delivering them to the troglodytes in the Greenreach Woods. He hired Kersk, paying him 500 gold pieces for the job. It turns out he was just a middleman with no particular ties to either Ravenblood or Kersk.
A few inquiries within the walled part of the city direct the party to Ravenblood House, a minor noble home in the Artisan's Quarter section of the city (inside the city walls, south/southeast of the Market, between Market Street and the Eastway). Ravenblood House is a not particularly well-maintained three story town house off of a side street. It is approximately 9:30pm and after dark by now.
Duncan the wizard casts Invisibility on Niam the rogue, who then sneaks into the house. He finds only one elderly servant (Joril) and a sleeping man (Nath Ravenblood) inside the house, which had definitely seen better days. The party enters the house and interrogates Ravenblood, who tells a tale of having been part of an adventuring band in the Underdark that was wiped out by lizardmen. He was the only survivor. He bought his freedom by agreeing to provide slaves for the lizardmen, delivered to the caves at Kristovaria. Ravenblood is wracked with guilt (genuinely) and begs for mercy.
For letting him live, he gives the party a magical tome called Ayaralan's Workbook volume 4, which is a spell book of unique trap-constructing magic. He also gives them a dwarven travel stone, a magical item that serves as both a compass and time of day tracker. This gives someone information on which direction they are headed, and roughly what time of day it is (day vs night, sundown vs dawn, etc). This is especially useful underground. Lastly, he gives them a packet of maps, papers and journals regarding the adventures of a band called the Silver Swords. The party spends the rest of the night in Ravenblood's House.
...More on the Silver Shields and the Tombs of the Alberneth in the next post...
[Duncan and Arian advanced to level 5 after this session]
GM Commentary - This was, for me, one of the best sessions we have had. It wasn't combat focused, but was driven almost entirely by story. We had players acting as their characters would do, we visited some new locations, and we added a lot to the fiction. Good stuff.
Cheating ahead, writing this 8 months after the session, the seeds that were planted here turned into at least 10 sessions of game play. And all because we took a bit of a left turn from the expected. Nice.
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