Rise Of The Snakemen [Forgotten Realms]

[Brakkart]

The following is a handout I gave to each player before character creation:

Rise of the Snakemen​

A Forgotten Realms Campaign​

Dungeon Master: Robert "Bob" Langford

Allowed Book List:

Characters can be created/updated using anything from the following books. The DM reserves the right to amend or remove anything that in his opinion endangers game balance.

3.5 Players Handbook
3.5 Dungeon Masters Guide
3.5 Monster Manual
Monster Manual II
Monster Manual III (out Sept 2004)
Fiend Folio
Complete Warrior
Complete Divine
Complete Arcane (out Nov 2004)
Complete Adventurer (out Jan 2005)
Official Wizards of the Coast errata

All 3.0 & 3.5 Forgotten Realms books (including Campaign Setting, Players Guide to Faerun, Faiths and Pantheons, Races of Faerun, Magic of Faerun, Lords of Darkness, Serpent Kingdoms, Underdark, Unapproachable East, Silver Marches & Monsters of Faerun)

In addition the DM shall be making use of Dragon & Dungeon magazines. If you wish to use anything that is not included in one of the above sources, I will consider it on a case by case basis. In all cases, if you wish to use something from a source, you (or someone else in the group) must have a copy of that source at the gaming table each week. If the book isn't there, neither is your characters ability to use whatever feat/item/class/etc taken from that source.

Starting Characters:

Characters begin the campaign with 3000 xp (3rd level if using a standard race), with 2700gp to spend (plus the bonus equipment for their region: see Players Guide to Faerun).

Character Background/Logs:

A one off reward of 400xp (plus 200xp extra for each level beyond 1st, so 800xp for a 3rd level character for example) will be awarded to each character that has a written background story/history. This should be at least an A4 side in length, and contain the following:

· Origin (parents, homeland, etc)
· Fears
· Any enemies made
· Personality Traits (ie, why the character is the way he/she is)
· Known relatives & their status/location
· Any allies/friends/contacts

Any player that wishes to write an in-character log/journal/diary will be rewarded 50xp/character level per session detailed. Given that I wrote a long and quite detailed journal for the last campaign I played in, my standards are quite high for this award.

Character Death/Retirement:

Inevitably some characters will die. Assuming the character is not brought back to life (and the player wishes to continue with a new character in the campaign), then they will start play with a new character 1 level lower than the one at which they perished. the new characters xp total will be 50% of the way to the next level. XP earned in a battle by a character who perishes in that fight, will pass to the next character created by that player (so they will start with more than the 50%).

If you wish to retire your character and create a new one, the new character will start play 1 xp short of the level the character retired at. This is a minor rebuke for retiring a character, as frankly I feel that it hurts the narrative. Characters that are retired gain no XP in the interim, so should a player ever wish to unretire such a chracter, they will re-enter play exactly as they left (they did after all choose to go and take a rest, that is exactly what they will have done).

New Characters:

Characters created after the start of the campaign receive 75% of the starting funds allocated to them (as shown on page 135 of the DMG), unless they choose to enter play as a prisoner, in which case they get the full 100% to spend, but their equipment is currently not in their possession.

Characters cannot spend more than 30% of their funds at character creation on any one item. A spellbook is the only exception to this rule.

 

[Brakkart]

The Adventuring Party

Party:

Player Character Name Align Race Class/Levels

Mark Noob Saibot CG Human Ranger2/Rogue1
Alastair Gylippus CN Human Rogue2/Wizard1
Gareth Zamtap N Human Cleric3 (Gond)
Dan Elena Morningstal CG Human Fighter2/Cleric1 (Valkur)
Phillip Aeron Greycastle NG Air Genasi Wizard2
Tony Ki Tendragion LN Human Rogue1/Monk2

I decided to start the campaign at 3rd level as I wanted to get the group into conflict with the Yuan-ti (some of the main villains of the overall storyline) fairly soon. Plus it gives the players a lot more options right from the start to get an interesting character to play. I've got nothing against 1st level starts, just didn't feel it would work in this case.

 

[Brakkart]

DM's Log of Session One

Party arrives in Baldur's Gate on the 23rd Eleint 1372DR, having worked as mercenary guards for the Seven Seas Trading Coster for the past couple tendays, whilst guarding a caravan from Athkatla. They were hired as there have been several raids on caravans carrying gemstones, and whilst theirs was not carrying anything of great value like that, the Coster did not want to get hit anyway, so took on extra protection to be "better safe than sorry".

On arrival they were paid the remainder of their retainer and offered future employment as guards, but the group turned this down, in favour of seeing what the city had to offer by way of employment. Waiting at the entrance to the Costers compound was a portly well dressed man who stopped them as they left and introduced himself as Morn Buckman, of Buckman, Brintle & Mite, a company that Aeron recognised by name as dealing in spell components.

Taking the party to the back room of the nearby Leaping Leprechaun Inn, he paid for a round of drinks and a platter of food to be brought in and then got down to business. He stated that he wished to employ the party as guards for his warehouse in the city, which was the heart of his operation in the Sword Coast being as Baldur's Gate is in the middle of the coastline, and thus a useful nexus for his stores in Waterdeep, Scornubel, Baldur's Gate and Athkatla ("with another store opening soon in Neverwinter, and in Irieabor also, just as soon as they build the damn road"). He explained that he has suffered a run of strange thefts from his warehouse, of various goods (venoms, herbs, spices, powdered metals, but mostly amniotic fluid "some barrels of the stuff, not expensive at all, just time consuming to replace").

He stated that he had hired a sorceress by the name of Rowan Mostana ("comes highly reccomended, spared no expense"), to set up a series of proper warding spells, only she had yet to turn up as she was travelling overland from Irieabor. He offered to pay the party 100gp each per tenday to guard the warehouse at night until she arrived. He also mentioned that while he had suffered a rash of thefts from the warehouse, the thieves had been very meticulous in their burglaries and had never broken in, nor had they made a mess in taking what they wanted.

The party agreed to his offer, and he left to attend to business (including adding the PC's names to the company payroll roster, and he suggested that they come up with a name for their group, for convinience sake). The party paid for rooms at the Inn (1gp a night, which includes a cooked breakfast), and while most of them took the time until sundown (when they were due at the warehouse) to rest, Gylippus & Noob went and checked out the warehouse from the street (157 Reaching Way was the address they had been given, in the north part of the city).

The warehouse turned out to be a 60'x80' converted two-storey barn, with a street to the front, and a narrow trash and rat filled alleyway at the rear, with other buildings along both sides. The only entrance being the double doors that opened onto Reaching Way itself. The only windows into the building were on the upper floor. Satisifed with thier assessment of the place, they rejoined the rest of the group and then waited till sundown.

The party were met at the warehouse as they arrived for their shift on guard duty by James, a clerk employed by Buckman, Brintle & Mite to oversee the running of the warehouse inventory. He answered what questions they had about the building, adding that there was a small unused cellar ("too damp and cold to keep anything down there, and it always smells bad") as well as the two floors. He handed them the keys and then left, as he had no wish to get involved in any fracas, as while he carried a dagger, he really had no idea in how to use it, other than he was assuared that "the pointed end goes into the other person somehow". Before leaving, he emplored the PC's to be careful, as "many things in here do not react well to fire!". Aeron and Gylippus assured him that neither of them were packing fire magics.

The group immediately set about exploring every inch of the warehouse, checking every external surface on every floor for hidden entranceways, finding none. When they were eventually satisfied that the only egress into the building was indeed the front doors, they set themselves up in ambush positions around the one item that they knew the thieves would make for, the three barrels of amniotic fluid on the upper floor. They went as far as to push these into the middle of the floor, and then arrange themselves around them, hidden amongst the crates (Ki, Aeron, Gylippus) and in the rafters above it (Elena, Noob). To keep an eye out on both floors, Zamtap positioned himself in the middle of the stairs. The group killed the lamps on the ground floor, and left the upper floor briefly lit, to leave the place with the impression that only the usual security guard was present (who according to James, usually spent the night asleep as nothing ever happened).

The group waited for hours, with Elena eventually growing bored and dropping down out of the roofing to play cards with herself atop the barrels. It was in the early morning that Zamtap suddenly noticed that the front doors of the warehouse were open. This realisation was followed scant seconds later by arrows thudding off his armour, alerting him (and everyone else except Elena) that they were under attack! Three salvos of arrows were fired at the cleric, silhouetted as he was, standing on the stairwell with the light from above behind him, before one struck home and pierced his defences. By now the others had arranged themselves around the top of the stairs in hiding (even Elena who finally noticed something was amiss as her comrades began spellcasting, and reluctantly put her cards away), and Zamtap backed up the stairs to join them, followed by his unseen, unheard assailants.

As the theives reached the top of the stairs, one spotted the lurking form of Gylippus and charged into him, greviously wounding the surprised wizard. whilst the other was quickly subdued by a well timed sleep spell from Aeron. Ki and Elena joined battle with Gylippus' attacker, the former scoring a hit, whilst the lady pirates arrow clattered off her allies mage armor. Realising that he was horribly outnumbered, the thief turned to run, Gylippus slashing him badly as he did, and he stumbled towards the stairs, screaming out to "Go, get out of here!!", before being abrubtly silenced by a bullet from Zamtap's pistol blowing his brains out. His body fell down a few stairs and lay there sprawled, blood pouring from the wound to make the stairs slippery...

...As Noob found out when he jumped down from his perch in the rafters and attempted to tumble down them, ending up in a bruised heap at the foot of the flight, the sound of a horse and cart escaping at speed reaching him from the street outside. Both he and Gylippus (who had run to a front window upstairs) saw the third thief make a get away with an empty cart.

The group then turned their attention to their prisoner, with Ki and Aeron securing him in ropes and then waking him up. However despite Gylippus' attempts at "persuasion" he remained un-cooperative, simply stating that he was a dead man for failing in his mission, and so the partys threats were wasted on him. The group locked him (along with the dead thief) in the cellar for the night and then turned both over to James and Morn when they arrived in the morning. They did find (whilst looting the pair), a strange tattoo on each of them, that of a sabre-toothed snakes head. None of them knew what it meant, but Morn Buckman asked if they would take the matter to an associate of his, a sage who lived down by the docks ("blue house on the street behind the Bitch Queen's chapel, can't miss it") by the name of Tanthar.

The group however, wanted sleep, so they adjourned back to the Leaping Leprechaun, ate breakfast, prayed/read for spells, and went to bed. All except Aeron, who then went on to the docks to consult with the sage, finding the house to be home to a very cantankerous halfling who agreed to look into the matter, stating that "it'll take me some days to find anything, so come back tomorrow". That done, Aeron returned to the Inn and went to sleep himself.

DM Notes:

Not a bad start, though the encounter with the thieves was a little under powered. Still one did manage to get away (mostly due to some bad rolls on listen checks by Zamtap when the thieves arrived, he didn't hear the sounds of a horse and cart pulling up in the street outside and was the only character near enough to the front doors to have a chance at hearing such). Might need to adust the money a little bit, in retrospect 100gp each per tenday is a bit high. Still it did prove to be too tempting to resist, and it's not like the party are going to be employed there for that long anyway!

 

[Brakkart]

DM's Log of Session Two

The party awoke in the mid afternoon of the 24th Eleint and the whole group trooped downstairs and paid for the evening meal that was cooking in the Leaping Leprechaun Inn (Roast boar with all the trimmings, served with dark ale). Since they had already done their spell memorising before going to bed in the morning, they decided to take it easy and relax in the Inn for the afternoon until they had to go to the warehouse for their evening shift.

All that is apart from Elena who took it upon herself to head to the warehouse and walk into the building opposite it, which turned out to be a warehouse run entirely by dwarves. Considering she went there to get permission to camp out on the buildings roof that night, things could have gone better. Mentioning that she wished to be up there to guard Buckman's warehouse did not go down too well, as the foreman was no great lover of wizards. Trying to appeal to his sense of security by mentioning that there were theives operating in the area, merely got two of the dwarf labourers ordered to pull night shift to guard that warehouse. Still, by fate or fluke, she got her placement on the rooftop for one night only.

She also stopped in at Buckman's warehouse, receiving a list of the types of goods stolen and rough quantities from James, as Aeron had requested such from Buckman yesterday. Taking this back to the Inn, the group pored over the list of components, but could come to no real conclusions as to what the theives were up to.

Sundown came around quickly and the group made their way to the warehouse and took up positions around the building (with Elena on the roof across the street, well until it rained anyway), expecting a return visit from the burglars, and most likely in greater numbers than the previous night. They waited... and waited... and waited... and dawn of the 25th Eleint came around without incident, much to their annoyance and James delight when he arrived first thing to start the days work. The group had to let him down in that they were pretty certain that they had not "scared the thieves off".

The party trekked back across town to their Inn, arriving just in time for breakfast (Grilled Sausages & Mushrooms with lots of buttered bread). None of them had to memorise any spells, having expended none during the course of the night so they all went to bed. On waking up, while the others relaxed, Aeron and Elena paid a visit to Tanthar's house to see if the old sage had come up with anything.

From him they learned that the sabre-toothed snake head is a common symbol associated with the worshippers of Sseth, a vile snake god. The particular version of the symbol he said was commonly used by a group of human cultists who serve the Yuan-ti known as The Viper's Fangs. He also let on that he had been asked to look into the matter of the tattoo's meaning by an officer of the Flaming Fist (the mercenary company that serves as Baldur's Gate's army & city watch). He told them to tell Buckman that "all debts owed were clear now" as he had told the officer a load of rubbish and sent him off on a wild goose chase. He assumes when the officer figures this out, his services will not be called upon in future, costing him a good client. As to what the debt he owed Buckman was, no mention was made.

Needless to say this news did not please the rest of the group. To battle thieves is one thing, quite another to battle snake cultists, who won't surrender, won't talk and cannot be bribed or reasoned with. Talk on this occupied the group until it was time to take up guard duty again. Again their vigilance was rewarded with an uneventful evening. By now the group was divided with some thinking that perhaps they had missed a clue and the thieves were expecting them to follow them, and the others confident that when they returned they would do so in force.

Buckman arrived to open the warehouse on the 26th Eleint, as it was James' day off. He was delighted to find that the party's presence had acted as a successful deterent for two whole nights, though troubled when the group told him who was behind the thefts thus far. Considering their efforts to unravel the mystery thus far, Buckman was only too willing to pay the party half their weeks wages a day in advance, writing out a credit note and telling the group to take it to his store in the city to be reimbursed.

The party again headed back to the Inn for breakfast, and sleep. In the afternoon they went and paid a vist to Buckman, Brintle & Mite's large alchemical supply store in the city, and found it to be a bit gaudy for their tastes, but well stocked (on most things anyway), getting their pay whilst they were there.

Evening rolled around again soon enough and the group headed back to the warehouse. Their vigilance was to be tested this night though, as around midnight a force of six Viper's Fangs cultists assaulted the building. A fierce battle broke out with almost everyone involved (strangely there was no sign of Gylippus). A sleep spell from the Fang Sorceror dropped Noob almost immediately, but Aeron retaliated with spells of his own, stunning several of the intruders and then sleeping one a little later. Elena conjured a monkey to little effect and then waded into a furious melee with one of the Fang Soldiers, a rude brute clad in scalemail and hefting a longsword and shield. The pirate lady and the cultist battled one another down an aisle between shelving, smashing items left and right as well as each other.

Ki took his time, creeping into position, but when he struck he did so with deadly effect, slaughtering a Fang Thug in one vicious thrust. Zamtap and Aeron traded spells and missile fire with the cultist sorceror and the pair of other cultists who stuck close to him. The pair fired down from the upper floor through the cargo doors in the middle of the ceiling, using the same doors for cover from below. Still, they were having limited success, so Zamtap drew his pistol, took aim and blasted a hole clean through the sorcerors head!

That rattled the remaining cultists nerves and they broke, running for the door and the waggon they had brought with them. While one of the thugs made it and made his getaway, the soldier who tried, had the misfortune to step on the line of caltrops Elena had placed across the doorway earlier and injure his feet too badly to catch up to the moving waggon as it rolled down the street. He turned and resolved to sell his life dearly, charging into the awakened Noob. He was quickly surrounded by Elena and Ki and cut down.

That left merely the one left sleeping at the foot of the stairs who the party bound and tossed into the cellar with the bodies of his fellow thieves (after looting them of anything of worth). Whilst emptying the cultists pockets, Noob came across a piece of parchment with a "shopping list" of what was to be taken, as well as a note stating that the guards were to be killed for their previous actions, in thwarting the plans of the vrael olo. The note was on paper that bore a strange watermark.

DM's Notes:

Two for two, another good session, the players started to get more into their characters, and all appear to be having a good time playing. The evenings play was only marred by the unexplained absence of Alastair, which meant I had to reduce the number of thieves for the battle. Still considering that campaigns I write myself tend to suck, thus far I have had nothing but compliments on my running of this campaign.

 

[Brakkart]

Player Handouts

The following are a pair of handouts I have made up thus far (using MS Wordpad, and the Script font to make the writing look like that of a quill pen). The first is the "shopping list" scroll the PC's found on the body of the Fang Sorceror. It had a watermark on it, of a symbol (created by drawing the symbol on the back of the piece of paper and showing them the front, so it could be faintly seen through).

Handout One:

Our masters, the vrael olo desire the following items:

Amniotic Fluid
Powdered Iron
Any varieties of venom/poison present

Also see to the guards. Death is the price they must pay for trying to thwart the will of our masters. If Buckman is present, do not harm him. The deaths of some adventurer types will not be mourned, but the loss of a prominent businessman will draw too much unwanted attention.


This second handout (which the PC's actually got first, just to be nice and confusing ), is the list of items and quantities stolen that Aeron asked Buckman to provide.

Handout Two:

Items known to have been stolen from Buckman, Brintle & Mite
warehouse:

Amniotic Fluid (many barrels worth, estimate at least 20)
Powdered Metals (large amounts taken, several crates worth. Mostly zinc and iron. Oddly no lead taken, usually a favourite of alchemists)
Liquid Metal (otherwise known as Mercury, or Quicksilver. Our entire stocks of this rare substance have been taken)
Venoms (both liquid and in powdered form, every variety has had at least some stock taken)
Herbs (Very little taken)
Spices (Very little taken)
Plant Extracts (again, mostly the poisonous varieties. Not much taken, but some of every type we stock has been looted)

 

[Frozenface]

Well, this certainly looks interesting. The yuan-ti are one of my favorite villianous races! And what you have so far is extremely well-written. I'm looking forward to the continuation of this story.

 

[Ryltar]

Ditto. I'm with this. Great writing so far.

 

[Brakkart]

DM's Log of Session Three

Dawn of the 27th Eleint saw James arrive at the warehouse to open up for the day, to be greeted by the smiling faces of the victorious group, and several large bloodstains on the floor of the building. The party informed him of what was in the cellar and he said that the bodies and captured cultist would be turned over to the first Flaming Fist patrol that passed by.

This caught the attention of Jebodiah, a dwarf guard employed at the warehouse across the street, and he wandered over to inquire as to what was going on. Filling him in on the situation, he nodded, saw that things seemed to be well in hand and headed back across the road, where he too was relieved of night duty by the arriving foreman. As coincidence would have it, he also had a room at the Leaping Leprechaun (simply because they didn't water their beer), and so he tagged along with the rest of the group as they bid James a good day and headed back to their Inn for breakfast and sleep.

In the afternoon they pondered over taking the note with the watermark to Tanthar, but remembering that he considered his debt to Buckman paid, they recoiled at the idea of how much a sage might cost to hire. Elena having struck up a camaraderie of sorts with the dwarf, convinced the rest of the group that they could use someone like him along, and the others agreed.

The pirate and the barbarian headed to Buckman's store, and were let up into his office upstairs, where Elena asked for him to add Jebodiah to the payroll. Buckman was a little hesitant as he rightly pointed out that thus far the group had easily handled the burglars. Elena retorted that the last time they had come with double the original numbers, and that should this pattern continue, the party would be completely overwhelmed. That swayed the merchant and he agreed to add a 7th member of the group to the payroll, starting on a half weeks pay as the tenday was halfway through already.

Noob, unbeknownst to Elena and Jebodiah had followed them, to see if they were being stalked, and was sure that he saw someone tailing the pair, but lost them before he could follow them. On returning to the Inn, he advised that no member of the group was to travel alone from now on.

That done, the group headed back to the warehouse in the evening for another nights watch duty. Jebodiah stopping in at his old employers to resign his commission there. The groups vigilance though was not to be tested this night, and come morning of the 28th Eleint, they packed up the dummy, caltrops and other sundry defences they had put in place, before James arrived to open up.

After breakfast and sleep, Elena and Jebodiah headed out to have a few drinks around town, Noob decided to trail them to see if they were being followed, and Aeron and Zamtap took the note and headed to Buckman's office.

The pair were indeed being followed, but after a while, their tail headed off, closely followed by Noob at his stealthy best... but not quite good enough, as he found out after rounding a corner, as the cultist flew out of a doorway at him. Unfazed by this sudden attack, Noob calmly battled the Fang assassin, hurling weapon after weapon at him, darts, shortswords, the works, whilst dodging the majority of the stabs aimed at him, finally felling the thug. He then made himself scarce, hearing from the next street, the sound of a Flaming Fist patrol approaching.

Aeron and Zamtap had better luck though, as Buckman was easily able to identify the watermark as that of Broca House, a trading coster that dealt in rare woods from the Tashalar region, mostly mahogany. He was baffled as to why a lumber company would be stealing from him though, until Aeron pointed out that the Tashalar region was known for its Yuan-ti infested jungles. Buckman was duly worried about sending the party to infiltrate the Broca compound however, as if it were to get out that his employees had broken into another coster's property, it could trigger a trade war, or rioting, both of which were bad for business.

Aeron suggested publically firing the group to cover up his involvement in the matter, whilst still keeping them in his employ, as they continued the investigation beyond their simple guard duty. Buckman agreed to do such the next morning, and they left his office, heading back to the others at the Inn to brief them on the new information.

After another uneventful nights watch, the group were met at the warehouse by Buckman who (loudly) proclaimed that thier services were no longer required, as his wizardess, Rowena Mostana had arrived in the city late last night, and would today be placing the wards on his building that would annihilate anyone setting foot in it after dark. He handed the party their severance pay and bade them goodbye. The group trooped off back to their Inn, and walked inside to be met by nearly a dozen Viper's Fangs in an ambush.

Before the group had even made its way fully into the building, half their number still in the street outside, they were in pitched battle as armour-clad fighters and nimble thugs tried to prevent the others from forcing their way in, while they worked to slaughter those already inside the building.

Jebodiah was having none of this, and spotting who was giving the orders, a mighty rage came upon him and he hurlked himself forward, cutting a swathe through the enemy ranks to reach the cleric of Sseth at their rear. Zamtap too made his way further into the building, but after being severely injured, running across the taproom to put some distance between himself and the cultists swords, while he healed his wounds, closely pursued by a scalemail clad Fang soldier.

Elena was not so lucky, being hit by the Hold Person straight away, and remaining as still as a statue, while a cultist cut at her with his sword, and magic missiles slammed into her also. Outside, Noob ran down the street, aiming to get into the Inn via the backdoor through the stable yard and catch the cultists in the flank. Gylippus and Ki battled in the doorway, pushing to get inside, even as across the room, Jebodiah was surrounded by foes...

DM's Notes:

Well the best laid plans and all that... I had plotted this session, to go roughly more as "party take note to Buckman, find out about Broca House, launch attack on the House". To this end I had spent more than 4 hours putting together a map and stats for Broca House and its occupants. Ohh well, hardly time wasted, as after all, they will be doing that next week. I threw in the fight at the end, mainly as Dan and Matt, sat down the end of the table looked a little bored. As I later found out Dan was in pain from a bad back, and Matt is a near total newbie to D&D, so was a little confused as to the goings on. Both have reassured me since that they were anything but bored, which is a relief. A shame the session had to end before the fight was concluded (the Games Club we play at closes at 9:30pm), but will mean an all action session next week, with concluding this battle and raiding the Coster.

Added a 7th player this week, a friend of Dan and I from work by the name of Matt. A relative newbie to the hobby, I felt obliged to add some new blood to the group, as I personally feel that teaching new people to play the game is the responsibility of every D&D group. Phillip being the last such addition to our group a few years back. His character is:

Matt Jebodiah Bugman CG Dwarf Barbarian3

 

[Brakkart]

DM's Log of Session Four

...with a thrust of sheer willpower, Elena finally broke the enchantments hold on her and glared menacingly at the cultist who had been gleefully stabbing her. The Fang cleric hurled spells at the dwarven psychopath before him, to little effect, and he gradually backed away, healing himself and then drawing a wand. Zamtap battled a soldier fiercely in one corner of the Inn's taproom, but while his foe landed blow after blow on the hapless priest, he rarely got a stike in against him in return.

Ki and Gylippus were having better luck, working together to flank and then cut apart the cultists, even as a thug stood off to one side, did his best to pepper Gylippus with arrows. Aeron, stood out in the street but with a good view of the proceedings, heaped misery onto the cultist wizard behind the bar, with spells harrying his opposite numbers effectiveness, to the point that spellcasting became pointless, and the much maligned wizard drew a wand and started blasting.

With the soldier guarding the cleric from his wrath, put to sleep by a timely intervention from Aeron, Jebodiah was freed to focus his attention on the leader of their ambushers, growling curses as he hacked at him, being blasted by magic missiles from the priests wand in return. Having finished her tormentor off, Elena rushed across the room to add her sword to the fight, but the dwarf's groans of pain mingled with his battle cries, showed her where her talents would be best applied, and she worked to keep the groups barbarian upright.

The last Fang soldier finally broke Zamtap's resolve, and the Gondsman fled across the bar, freeing the armoured tough to aid his commander, he wading into the melee in support of the cleric, attacking Elena. Seeing the danger, Gylippus and Ki ran across to help deal with him, the pair having seen that the dwarf was taking the cleric as a very personal foe by now, the villain having healed himself twice, denying the barbarian his victory.

A blast echoed across the room as Zamtap fired off his pistol at the cleric though, missing him narrowly because of the cover given by the bar he had retreated behind. As if in mockery of how it should be done, Aeron calmly strolled in through the door, loaded and aimed his crossbow and killed the wizard effortlessly. In a last futile act of savagery the cleric blasted his wand into Gylippus dropping him to the floor as he snarled "At least I'll claim one of you for Sseth!". Seconds later, he was dead, cut down by Jebodiah's axe, the dwarf grinning broadly even as the strength of his anger faded from him and he collapsed atop his beaten enemy. The Fang cleric never got to see Aeron and Elena save the one member of the party that the Fangs had managed to put down.

At that the landlord poured the group a complimentary round of drinks for being the victors, along with telling them in no uncertain terms to get their things and get out. They took their bags from their rooms, and had just finished looting the nine corpses, when the door banged open to admit a large man in armour, a red tabard and a black helm with red stripes on, an officer of the Flaming Fist, and in a furious mood too, as Gylippus found out when he tried some backchat.

Summing the groups recent activities up as a danger to the peace, he gave the group two days to leave Baldur's Gate, or they would be found and very publically dealt with. With that warning ringing in their ears, the group headed out of the Leaping Leprechaun and as word quickly spread across the city of their battle in the bar, they found themselves turned away from Inn after Inn, none keen to have a repeat fight break out on their premises (and the consequent loss of business incurred during the clean-up afterward). Finally they were able to rent rooms at a small tavern down by the docks, not affiliated to the brewers guilds, called the Blushing Mermaid.

There, they rested, healed up, divided up their hard fought for loot (after Gylippus had sold off some of the non-monetary items), ate and discussed what to do next, with the two day deadline looming over them in which to get the evidence of Broca House's complicity in the thefts.

DM's Notes:

Memo to self: Fights can take a while, but when they go as well as this one did, they sure are a LOT of fun!!

So Broca House remains unraided, and yet the plot advances nicely and in ways I had not foreseen when plotting this section of the campaign out initially. The deadline makes things interesting for the players, creating a real sense of urgency. I actually got to use the Flaming Fist rather than just having them as background colour this week. As you might have noticed, no mention was made of Noob, as Mark did not turn up to the session this week, no idea why at the time of writing. Dished out XP for the fight and also to Gareth for turning in Zamtap's history, which allowed him to reach level 4 ahead of the others (I'll post it just as soon as I've gone through it and removed the typo's). I've decided not to bother with the 5 day training thing, I just feel it will hinder the storyline more than add to it after some serious thinking on it.

 

[Eccles]

Not killed anyone yet? You're slacking, mate.

Best to all down there.