Suzail (final update)
Morte
Explorer
Re: Session 1 part 2
Pretty easy, huh? A little note... I actually run this game twice, on Tuesdays and Thursdays for two different groups. The Tuesday group are the basis for the story hour (they use different NWN chat settings which give me a better log).
When the Thursday group had this fight, they ended up with four dead, two of whom are still dead on the battlefield, and an unknown number of enemies left standing. The difference? They fought it from the other side of a doorway.
The Tuesday group used a bit of dialogue to get themselves into the room and into position for a charge. The Thursday group decided to stay outside in the corridor, use the available cover, and to try and draw their enemies out with ranged weapons and spells to gang up on them as they came through the door. That would have been a perfectly good tactic, except that the opposing sorcerer had a scroll of cloudkill. He dropped it on them while a summoned dire spider blocked the doorway and penned them into a couple of 20 foot corridors for several rounds. Then the cleric of Silvanus managed a successful Hold Person on one of their tanks in the cloud, too.
In the end the last two left alive fled back to the sewers, the rogue returning stealthily a bit later to relock/trap the door and reclaim the two bodies on their side of it. They're going to try for the other two next week. I'll have to work out what happened to the bodies in the meantime. Hmm, they left the crypt a bit short of zombies...
All that difference, for one doorway.
Morte said:
Pretty easy, huh? A little note... I actually run this game twice, on Tuesdays and Thursdays for two different groups. The Tuesday group are the basis for the story hour (they use different NWN chat settings which give me a better log).
When the Thursday group had this fight, they ended up with four dead, two of whom are still dead on the battlefield, and an unknown number of enemies left standing. The difference? They fought it from the other side of a doorway.
The Tuesday group used a bit of dialogue to get themselves into the room and into position for a charge. The Thursday group decided to stay outside in the corridor, use the available cover, and to try and draw their enemies out with ranged weapons and spells to gang up on them as they came through the door. That would have been a perfectly good tactic, except that the opposing sorcerer had a scroll of cloudkill. He dropped it on them while a summoned dire spider blocked the doorway and penned them into a couple of 20 foot corridors for several rounds. Then the cleric of Silvanus managed a successful Hold Person on one of their tanks in the cloud, too.
In the end the last two left alive fled back to the sewers, the rogue returning stealthily a bit later to relock/trap the door and reclaim the two bodies on their side of it. They're going to try for the other two next week. I'll have to work out what happened to the bodies in the meantime. Hmm, they left the crypt a bit short of zombies...
All that difference, for one doorway.
Morte
Explorer
Session 2 part 1
The party went back into the sewers and decided to search around before returning to the ministry. Here under St Aelax Field, which was mostly an open expanse of cobbles, there were some quite large rooms opening up off the maintenance corridors. They might perhaps have been used for equipment storage once, but they all seemed empty now. … Until, that is, they found one room with a fenced off enclosure at the back. Stood in the enclosure were three or four trolls, who seemed to be keeping warm around a campfire.
The trolls immediately rushed up to the fence snarling and poking their long arms trough the railings to claw at the party. Everybody unlimbered their ranged weapons and opened fire, except Merlinda who went for lightning and Lafajet who, yes, walked up to the bars and started to try and melee two trolls through a set of iron railings with a spiked ball on the end of a chain. He changed his mind quickly, and backed off to fire magic missiles. When Merlinda’s third and final Call Lightning blew the gate off its hinges, it also finished the trolls.
Trolls. They had come to Suzail for a mission to investigate troll attacks outside the city. And here they were in the sewers. What could this mean? They searched around. There was another door on the far side of the room, which led out the back of the troll compound. It opened… right onto the main sewer. Half the party nearly ended up swimming. “I think the trolls may be linked to our quest for Lord Blake” said Mabel.
“Yes, I think they may be linked too” said a voice behind them.
They turned rapidly, and found a man stood in the blasted gateway watching them. He was dark-skinned, wore leather, his head was shaven except for a black topknot, and he held a composite short bow in one hand.
“And who might you be” asked Lia, as casually as she could.
“You are the group Gert recruited, yes? I recognise you from his descriptions. I am Ahmed. Which of you is Merlinda and which is Lia?”
“I’m Lia. Good to find you at last.” Lia exhaled visibly.
“Well, somebody has been, ah, storing monsters in the sewers for the last week or so. We have no idea why. Or who. Though they may be delivering them by boat, because they always seem to end up in rooms with access to the main sewer channel. But that's for later. I understand you have been working for the temple of Waukeen?”
“That we are” said Mabel.
“Well, you should finish up with that then. When you’re done, come and find me in the cellar at the Old Boot.”
“Oh, will they let us in again?” asked Lia, hopeful. “We are erhm barred sir. Small vomit incident” added Merlinda.
“Yes, I gather you managed to impress Silas. Don't worry, the secret passage in the southwest corner of these sewers leads up to the cellar. You can use it safely today. You won't meet anyone you shouldn't. I’ll have a friend with Silas later, or your bardic friend can try his luck.”
“Luck!?” exclaimed Lafajet, frowning. He fumed quietly as the party said their goodbyes to Ahmed and headed back towards the Ministry of Frost.
to be continued…
The party went back into the sewers and decided to search around before returning to the ministry. Here under St Aelax Field, which was mostly an open expanse of cobbles, there were some quite large rooms opening up off the maintenance corridors. They might perhaps have been used for equipment storage once, but they all seemed empty now. … Until, that is, they found one room with a fenced off enclosure at the back. Stood in the enclosure were three or four trolls, who seemed to be keeping warm around a campfire.
The trolls immediately rushed up to the fence snarling and poking their long arms trough the railings to claw at the party. Everybody unlimbered their ranged weapons and opened fire, except Merlinda who went for lightning and Lafajet who, yes, walked up to the bars and started to try and melee two trolls through a set of iron railings with a spiked ball on the end of a chain. He changed his mind quickly, and backed off to fire magic missiles. When Merlinda’s third and final Call Lightning blew the gate off its hinges, it also finished the trolls.
Trolls. They had come to Suzail for a mission to investigate troll attacks outside the city. And here they were in the sewers. What could this mean? They searched around. There was another door on the far side of the room, which led out the back of the troll compound. It opened… right onto the main sewer. Half the party nearly ended up swimming. “I think the trolls may be linked to our quest for Lord Blake” said Mabel.
“Yes, I think they may be linked too” said a voice behind them.
They turned rapidly, and found a man stood in the blasted gateway watching them. He was dark-skinned, wore leather, his head was shaven except for a black topknot, and he held a composite short bow in one hand.
“And who might you be” asked Lia, as casually as she could.
“You are the group Gert recruited, yes? I recognise you from his descriptions. I am Ahmed. Which of you is Merlinda and which is Lia?”
“I’m Lia. Good to find you at last.” Lia exhaled visibly.
“Well, somebody has been, ah, storing monsters in the sewers for the last week or so. We have no idea why. Or who. Though they may be delivering them by boat, because they always seem to end up in rooms with access to the main sewer channel. But that's for later. I understand you have been working for the temple of Waukeen?”
“That we are” said Mabel.
“Well, you should finish up with that then. When you’re done, come and find me in the cellar at the Old Boot.”
“Oh, will they let us in again?” asked Lia, hopeful. “We are erhm barred sir. Small vomit incident” added Merlinda.
“Yes, I gather you managed to impress Silas. Don't worry, the secret passage in the southwest corner of these sewers leads up to the cellar. You can use it safely today. You won't meet anyone you shouldn't. I’ll have a friend with Silas later, or your bardic friend can try his luck.”
“Luck!?” exclaimed Lafajet, frowning. He fumed quietly as the party said their goodbyes to Ahmed and headed back towards the Ministry of Frost.
to be continued…
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Morte
Explorer
Session 2 part 2
Session 2 part 2
Their return to the ministry dungeon was undramatic, apart from the fop failing to persuade them that 2000gp wasn’t enough to enter any smelly sewers[1]. They found no new opposition, hardly any loot, and there was nothing stood in the summoning circle in the sorcerer’s bedroom. They moved upstairs to the ground level, which was empty as before, and Mabel snaked up the chain ladder to the upper floor. She arrived in a small anteroom with a single door and called the others up behind her.
Opening the door disturbed the room’s occupant, a strange lizard like creature sat writing at a desk in the far corner. It looked like a nightmare version of the lizardmen they had fought in the wet caves under the Dalelands and attacked unarmed with blinding speed. It would have given any one of the party very serious trouble, but six working together were too much for it. Once they’d had a chance to catch their breath Lafajet gathered his thoughts and consulted his lore. “That was a Xill. It’s a being from the outer planes, it must have been summoned here.”
It seemed that somebody had summoned the Xill to act as a clerk and scribe, for the floor around its desk was littered with thousands of sheets of parchment all covered in dry records of comings and goings in St Aelax field. In the desk was a summary, which would probably be worth money to the right (or wrong) person. Then somebody sat in the Xill’s chair, and the walls suddenly became transparent to give a panoramic view over St Aelax Field. So that was where it got the information… but what for?
They were finished here. It was time to report in. Soippi at the temple of Waukeen paid them the remaining 2000gp for completing the job, and said she’d put in a good word for them with the merchants’ guild who had some sort of joint project coming up with the Cloaktower. It might mean more work for them.
Then they went to see Ahmed. Everybody started heading for the sewers to use the secret entrance to The Old Boot’s cellar, except Lafajet who headed straight for the inn and dragged the others behind him. He failed to talk his way past the receptionist (insulting her as he walked in the door probably didn’t help), so they went back to the sewers and found the secret entrance.
Ahmed was waiting. He briefed them in greater detail.
"About 25 or 30 miles north of here, my Lord Blake's land borders on land owned by a Lord Wyvernspur. It's near the shore of the Wyvernwater. The two families are old rivals, and it doesn't help that their town mansions face each other across the road. About 3 or 4 weeks back, trolls started raiding my lord's land. His land doesn't border any troll infested areas, so he was suspicious. Rather than wiping the trolls out he has contained them, under pretence of his knights being busy elsewhere, since he wished to investigate whether they were acting for anyone else. But what he needs is someone who can investigate and follow up on what they find without appearing linked to him.”
“Mmmm and that's where we come in?” asked Merlinda.
Ahemed nodded. “Now adventurers are known for tackling trolls for the hell of it, so we thought we'd hire some to do it and pretend they are acting alone. So if the job leads them onto Wyvernspur land, it's adventurers following trolls and not Lord Blake invading his neighbours.”
“Yes, very clever” said Lia.
Ahmed continued. “When they first arrived, the trolls did a lot of damage. They killed several innocent people. That was stopped quickly, and the area was evacuated. Well, evacuated apart from a stubborn halfling called Jack Salt who 'refused' to leave his dock and business. He actually works for us, he's keeping an eye on the place. He's your contact."
“Has he found anything useful?” asked Padreic.
“The mere fact that the trolls have stayed there for 3 weeks without much in the way of booty suggests they have some other source of food. He also has an idea of the general direction of their lair. But mostly I've told him to keep his head down and stay inside his stockade. He doesn't have the sort of firepower you lot have.”
It was three in the morning, but the outer gate was open for a caravan to enter the field. They headed out of Suzail immediately. It took about a day and a half to reach the small stockade on the shores of the Wyvernwater.
to be continued
[1] Lafajet’s player asked for a persuade check to persuade the rest of the party not to go in the smelly sewers. One of my more unusual “think of a DC” moments. I went for 30, since they’re a party who habitually finish quests and they’re used to ignoring him whining. He rolled a 7 on top of a skill of 19 and failed.
Session 2 part 2
Their return to the ministry dungeon was undramatic, apart from the fop failing to persuade them that 2000gp wasn’t enough to enter any smelly sewers[1]. They found no new opposition, hardly any loot, and there was nothing stood in the summoning circle in the sorcerer’s bedroom. They moved upstairs to the ground level, which was empty as before, and Mabel snaked up the chain ladder to the upper floor. She arrived in a small anteroom with a single door and called the others up behind her.
Opening the door disturbed the room’s occupant, a strange lizard like creature sat writing at a desk in the far corner. It looked like a nightmare version of the lizardmen they had fought in the wet caves under the Dalelands and attacked unarmed with blinding speed. It would have given any one of the party very serious trouble, but six working together were too much for it. Once they’d had a chance to catch their breath Lafajet gathered his thoughts and consulted his lore. “That was a Xill. It’s a being from the outer planes, it must have been summoned here.”
It seemed that somebody had summoned the Xill to act as a clerk and scribe, for the floor around its desk was littered with thousands of sheets of parchment all covered in dry records of comings and goings in St Aelax field. In the desk was a summary, which would probably be worth money to the right (or wrong) person. Then somebody sat in the Xill’s chair, and the walls suddenly became transparent to give a panoramic view over St Aelax Field. So that was where it got the information… but what for?
They were finished here. It was time to report in. Soippi at the temple of Waukeen paid them the remaining 2000gp for completing the job, and said she’d put in a good word for them with the merchants’ guild who had some sort of joint project coming up with the Cloaktower. It might mean more work for them.
Then they went to see Ahmed. Everybody started heading for the sewers to use the secret entrance to The Old Boot’s cellar, except Lafajet who headed straight for the inn and dragged the others behind him. He failed to talk his way past the receptionist (insulting her as he walked in the door probably didn’t help), so they went back to the sewers and found the secret entrance.
Ahmed was waiting. He briefed them in greater detail.
"About 25 or 30 miles north of here, my Lord Blake's land borders on land owned by a Lord Wyvernspur. It's near the shore of the Wyvernwater. The two families are old rivals, and it doesn't help that their town mansions face each other across the road. About 3 or 4 weeks back, trolls started raiding my lord's land. His land doesn't border any troll infested areas, so he was suspicious. Rather than wiping the trolls out he has contained them, under pretence of his knights being busy elsewhere, since he wished to investigate whether they were acting for anyone else. But what he needs is someone who can investigate and follow up on what they find without appearing linked to him.”
“Mmmm and that's where we come in?” asked Merlinda.
Ahemed nodded. “Now adventurers are known for tackling trolls for the hell of it, so we thought we'd hire some to do it and pretend they are acting alone. So if the job leads them onto Wyvernspur land, it's adventurers following trolls and not Lord Blake invading his neighbours.”
“Yes, very clever” said Lia.
Ahmed continued. “When they first arrived, the trolls did a lot of damage. They killed several innocent people. That was stopped quickly, and the area was evacuated. Well, evacuated apart from a stubborn halfling called Jack Salt who 'refused' to leave his dock and business. He actually works for us, he's keeping an eye on the place. He's your contact."
“Has he found anything useful?” asked Padreic.
“The mere fact that the trolls have stayed there for 3 weeks without much in the way of booty suggests they have some other source of food. He also has an idea of the general direction of their lair. But mostly I've told him to keep his head down and stay inside his stockade. He doesn't have the sort of firepower you lot have.”
It was three in the morning, but the outer gate was open for a caravan to enter the field. They headed out of Suzail immediately. It took about a day and a half to reach the small stockade on the shores of the Wyvernwater.
to be continued
[1] Lafajet’s player asked for a persuade check to persuade the rest of the party not to go in the smelly sewers. One of my more unusual “think of a DC” moments. I went for 30, since they’re a party who habitually finish quests and they’re used to ignoring him whining. He rolled a 7 on top of a skill of 19 and failed.
Morte
Explorer
Session 2, part 3
They passed the caravan as they headed north, with the merchants looking subdued and the guards looking tense. Apparently it had had a bit of trouble. Things were settling in Cormyr, since the death of King Azoun IV on the battlefield, but there was still plenty of trouble. This lot had been beset by Orc brigands raiding out of the King’s Forest, in a well-timed and well-planned raid using a ballista and a light catapult throwing alchemists fire. There were sinister things afoot in the King’s Forest…
About a day and a half later, they arrived at the shores of the Wyvernwater, to find a burnt out wagon sitting outside a small stockade on the lake’s edge. They approached the gates, which were closed and apparently locked.
“Who is it?” yelled a deep, thickly-accented voice from inside.
“We are here to help” replied Lia, taking her turn at blowing the party’s cover.
“Just travellers, sir” called Merlinda, getting it right for once.
“Well, which is it?” came from inside.
“Both” called Merlinda.
“What do you want?”
“Nothing ... just to be good citizens.” Lia’s voice trailed off as the party realised that, as usual, they had completely forgotten to prepare for a conversation and get their stories straight. About twenty die/raise cycles in the Dalelands had more or less taught them to scout and buff before battles started instead of afterwards, but guarded speech was going to take a little longer.
The gatekeeper decided that he was obviously dealing with a bunch of helpless wandering lunatics who shouldn’t be allowed out in the wilderness on their own. He obviously needed to get them inside as soon as possible. “What are you talking about? Do you want to come inside or stand out there for the trolls to eat?”
The gatekeeper was revealed as a young Uthgardt barbarian, many many miles from home. He was covered in tattoos with the Elk as a major theme. “You want talk to Jack? He on dock. He talk to shipper. Maybe you best wait for finish.”
He walked down to the shore, where a small ship was tied up to a fairly substantial dock. There was a cabin and a grain silo off to one side, and the area was scattered with crates and barrels and fishing nets. The Wyvernwater was a shipping route as well as a major source of fish and crab.
A halfling in leather armour stood on the dock, talking to the two people on the ship. The Elk tribesman briefly interrupted to say “People. Many. Armed, friendly.”
Jack Salt nodded and resumed talking with the shippers. Merlinda butted in to say hello.
“Just a minute you lot. I’m doing business here. Don’t you know to wait?”
“Me say wait Jack, but they no listen” said the barbarian.
“Oh never mind, I'm finished here anyway.” The halfling said his goodbyes to the shippers and gestured for the party to follow him towards the shack. “So, what do you lot want anyway?”
“Ahmed sent us.”
“Ah.” His manner changed completely.
“He mentioned trolls.”
“Yep, we got a regular bunch of them. A small tribe or war party, anyhow. When they come near here, which they don't do so much since Erdic got a bow, they come from the stream to the north. If you go look up there you'll pick up tracks. Now, as for cover... If anyone asks, you're not working for me but I gave you some information.”
“Of course, we would not dream of saying anything else” smiled Lia. [In the distance, a DM snorted.]
Jack gestured to the two shippers over by the dock. “Those two will be alright, they’re off for a fortnight to get another load of lumber. I diverted the last lot to build the stockade.”
They headed north out of the stockade, and found the stream and the tracks. They led west to a small crag. Mabel scouted the crag and found a cave mouth, to which she lead the party (dispatching a grizzly bear along the way). She cast invisibility and looked inside, then came back to report a long tunnel sloping steeply downwards and opening into a large, wet, chamber.
Meanwhile Merlinda examined the cave with a druid’s eye, and declared it unnatural. It was new, the stone un-weathered. It had seemingly just been dug out of solid rock by something that left only fine dust as evidence of its passage. This was outside their experience, so they cast a frenzy of buff spells (five of the six were casters of some description) and prepared to enter.
next week, session 3…
They passed the caravan as they headed north, with the merchants looking subdued and the guards looking tense. Apparently it had had a bit of trouble. Things were settling in Cormyr, since the death of King Azoun IV on the battlefield, but there was still plenty of trouble. This lot had been beset by Orc brigands raiding out of the King’s Forest, in a well-timed and well-planned raid using a ballista and a light catapult throwing alchemists fire. There were sinister things afoot in the King’s Forest…
About a day and a half later, they arrived at the shores of the Wyvernwater, to find a burnt out wagon sitting outside a small stockade on the lake’s edge. They approached the gates, which were closed and apparently locked.
“Who is it?” yelled a deep, thickly-accented voice from inside.
“We are here to help” replied Lia, taking her turn at blowing the party’s cover.
“Just travellers, sir” called Merlinda, getting it right for once.
“Well, which is it?” came from inside.
“Both” called Merlinda.
“What do you want?”
“Nothing ... just to be good citizens.” Lia’s voice trailed off as the party realised that, as usual, they had completely forgotten to prepare for a conversation and get their stories straight. About twenty die/raise cycles in the Dalelands had more or less taught them to scout and buff before battles started instead of afterwards, but guarded speech was going to take a little longer.
The gatekeeper decided that he was obviously dealing with a bunch of helpless wandering lunatics who shouldn’t be allowed out in the wilderness on their own. He obviously needed to get them inside as soon as possible. “What are you talking about? Do you want to come inside or stand out there for the trolls to eat?”
The gatekeeper was revealed as a young Uthgardt barbarian, many many miles from home. He was covered in tattoos with the Elk as a major theme. “You want talk to Jack? He on dock. He talk to shipper. Maybe you best wait for finish.”
He walked down to the shore, where a small ship was tied up to a fairly substantial dock. There was a cabin and a grain silo off to one side, and the area was scattered with crates and barrels and fishing nets. The Wyvernwater was a shipping route as well as a major source of fish and crab.
A halfling in leather armour stood on the dock, talking to the two people on the ship. The Elk tribesman briefly interrupted to say “People. Many. Armed, friendly.”
Jack Salt nodded and resumed talking with the shippers. Merlinda butted in to say hello.
“Just a minute you lot. I’m doing business here. Don’t you know to wait?”
“Me say wait Jack, but they no listen” said the barbarian.
“Oh never mind, I'm finished here anyway.” The halfling said his goodbyes to the shippers and gestured for the party to follow him towards the shack. “So, what do you lot want anyway?”
“Ahmed sent us.”
“Ah.” His manner changed completely.
“He mentioned trolls.”
“Yep, we got a regular bunch of them. A small tribe or war party, anyhow. When they come near here, which they don't do so much since Erdic got a bow, they come from the stream to the north. If you go look up there you'll pick up tracks. Now, as for cover... If anyone asks, you're not working for me but I gave you some information.”
“Of course, we would not dream of saying anything else” smiled Lia. [In the distance, a DM snorted.]
Jack gestured to the two shippers over by the dock. “Those two will be alright, they’re off for a fortnight to get another load of lumber. I diverted the last lot to build the stockade.”
They headed north out of the stockade, and found the stream and the tracks. They led west to a small crag. Mabel scouted the crag and found a cave mouth, to which she lead the party (dispatching a grizzly bear along the way). She cast invisibility and looked inside, then came back to report a long tunnel sloping steeply downwards and opening into a large, wet, chamber.
Meanwhile Merlinda examined the cave with a druid’s eye, and declared it unnatural. It was new, the stone un-weathered. It had seemingly just been dug out of solid rock by something that left only fine dust as evidence of its passage. This was outside their experience, so they cast a frenzy of buff spells (five of the six were casters of some description) and prepared to enter.
next week, session 3…
Morte
Explorer
Session 3, part1
Inside the cave mouth, a tunnel twisted and sloped downwards. Again, the stone was freshly cut and unweathered. Merlinda spotted what looked like claw marks in the stone. Whatever came through here had big claws.
Mabel came back from scouting. “At the end of the tunnel, there’s a doorway opening up into a bigger cave. It’s part flooded, with a causeway through the water. To the south there is a cave with what appears to be an umber hulk.”
“Hope he doesn't smell yeuchy” said Lafajet.
Padreic ignored him. “Tuneller with big claws...makes sense.”
Griseld had her priorities sorted. “OK, we gonna kill it?”
“I hope so, otherwise it kills us” said Merlinda.
“I will try a sound blast on it. Let me cast the spell and try to stun it” said Mabel, ever practical and on the ball. “OK, den we charge?” said Griseld, ever Griseld.
They moved into the cave, and Mabel fired her Soundburst at extreme range. She fired another for good measure as Griseld charged and Lafajet shouted “EEEEEK!”. Padreic was still trying to clamber past the group of adventurers who’d spontaneously decided to stand still and block the doorway in front of him when Griseld killed the stunned and weakened umber hulk with two mighty blows of her greatsword.
The creature’s den was empty. Mabel started to explore along the causeway, spying a doorway into a cave at the other end. She saw a troll wander past the doorway inside the cave and came back to tell the others. “You wanna shoot him and lure him?” asked Gris. “There may be more, we should try to lure them across the bridge” said Mabel.
Lure them they did. Mabel and Lia shared the shoot and run duties. The trolls rushed in clumps of two to four, all that could fit on the causeway, about fifteen or twenty of them in total. There were plain trolls, troll berserkers, troll shamans with fear spells that foundered on Protection from Evil, and a nasty looking troll chieftain that Padreic and Griseld hacked to pieces. They fell to sword and halberd, scimitar and bow, Magic Missile and Lightning, and Merlinda’s favourite Flame Lash. Every troll in the caverns came out to fight two against six at the wrong end of the causeway. Not bright, those trolls.
[DM note: ah, I remember the start of the campaign when I got half a dozen CR 0.25 goblins to kill off half the level 2 party with tactics like this. Those were the days…]
They explored carefully, but met no more opposition. There was a treasure chamber, which turned up a sapphire and a ring of scholars amongst lesser bits and pieces, and a standard issue troll altar which they smashed. And there was a store room, with a set of uniform crates in one corner and piles of junk including wrecked crates in the other. The crates mostly held meat and fish, preserved as trail rations, and in one case potions and trap kits. In one of them Mabel found a note, or rather packing list, wedged in a crack out of sight. It could easily have been left there by accident.
They went back to Jack Salt.
to be continued…
Inside the cave mouth, a tunnel twisted and sloped downwards. Again, the stone was freshly cut and unweathered. Merlinda spotted what looked like claw marks in the stone. Whatever came through here had big claws.
Mabel came back from scouting. “At the end of the tunnel, there’s a doorway opening up into a bigger cave. It’s part flooded, with a causeway through the water. To the south there is a cave with what appears to be an umber hulk.”
“Hope he doesn't smell yeuchy” said Lafajet.
Padreic ignored him. “Tuneller with big claws...makes sense.”
Griseld had her priorities sorted. “OK, we gonna kill it?”
“I hope so, otherwise it kills us” said Merlinda.
“I will try a sound blast on it. Let me cast the spell and try to stun it” said Mabel, ever practical and on the ball. “OK, den we charge?” said Griseld, ever Griseld.
They moved into the cave, and Mabel fired her Soundburst at extreme range. She fired another for good measure as Griseld charged and Lafajet shouted “EEEEEK!”. Padreic was still trying to clamber past the group of adventurers who’d spontaneously decided to stand still and block the doorway in front of him when Griseld killed the stunned and weakened umber hulk with two mighty blows of her greatsword.
The creature’s den was empty. Mabel started to explore along the causeway, spying a doorway into a cave at the other end. She saw a troll wander past the doorway inside the cave and came back to tell the others. “You wanna shoot him and lure him?” asked Gris. “There may be more, we should try to lure them across the bridge” said Mabel.
Lure them they did. Mabel and Lia shared the shoot and run duties. The trolls rushed in clumps of two to four, all that could fit on the causeway, about fifteen or twenty of them in total. There were plain trolls, troll berserkers, troll shamans with fear spells that foundered on Protection from Evil, and a nasty looking troll chieftain that Padreic and Griseld hacked to pieces. They fell to sword and halberd, scimitar and bow, Magic Missile and Lightning, and Merlinda’s favourite Flame Lash. Every troll in the caverns came out to fight two against six at the wrong end of the causeway. Not bright, those trolls.
[DM note: ah, I remember the start of the campaign when I got half a dozen CR 0.25 goblins to kill off half the level 2 party with tactics like this. Those were the days…]
They explored carefully, but met no more opposition. There was a treasure chamber, which turned up a sapphire and a ring of scholars amongst lesser bits and pieces, and a standard issue troll altar which they smashed. And there was a store room, with a set of uniform crates in one corner and piles of junk including wrecked crates in the other. The crates mostly held meat and fish, preserved as trail rations, and in one case potions and trap kits. In one of them Mabel found a note, or rather packing list, wedged in a crack out of sight. It could easily have been left there by accident.
Crates for SP:
4 of meat
4 of fish
1 assorted potions (including Calim
Checked SW
They went back to Jack Salt.
to be continued…
Morte
Explorer
Session 3, part 2
Jack quizzed them, paying particular attention to the crates, the standard manufacture of the trap kits, and the packing list they’d found. It seemed to tell him what he wanted to know, though he wasn’t saying exactly what that was. Lia seemed keen to press the matter, but she got distracted when Lafajet used the final conversation with their immediate employer as an opportunity to try flirting with Merlinda. Jack, who was getting pretty fed up with the party goofing around, sent them back to Suzail to meet Ahmed in the same place as before.
Back in Suzail, they tramped though the sewers over Lafajet’s continued whining and headed through the secret entrance to the Old Boot’s cellars to meet Ahmed. He thanked them, deflected questions about what was happening next, and offered them a choice of payment for the work they’d done and their continued discretion. They had the choice of 10,000 gold in cash, or the same amount as a tab at the Cold Chisel Smithy with the ability to jump the queue for custom work. They chose the latter.
The same notice board that had brought them the job for the temple of Waukeen had an advert from the Cloaktower, home to the mages’ guild in Suzail.
A guard confirmed that the Cloaktower, the Cold Chisel Smithy, and the famous equipment store known as Adventurer’s Mart were all grouped close together in the city’s shopping district. So off they went to the bright lights of Silvertown, shopper’s paradise for a metropolis of over 40,000.
Merlinda seemed determined to get her enchanted armour, made from carved elm scales hardened with the Ironwood spell, enchanted even further.[1] Three different vendors advised her that raising an enchantment from the second degree to the third would be very slow and expensive and she would get better value by enchanting her more mundane shield or simply buying a ring of protection off the shelf. But she was determined.
Adventurer’s Mart said it was likely to take a fortnight and cost around 5000 gold; they told her to go and see Toilir the Chisel at the Cold Chisel Smithy for a firm quote. She immediately complained that they were trying to rob her, then went into the smithy and said that Adventurer’s Mart had quoted her 4000 gold for an upgrade.
“Balls he did,” said Toilir, a formidable female dwarf, “he said I will examine it and give you a quote like he always does”. The store and the smithy had a long working relationship, and had seen more than a few adventurers before. Toilir had heard this line so many times before that she didn’t even throw the party out, just examined the armour and told Merlinda to come back in the morning for a firm quote.
Over the road in the Cloaktower, they enquired about the job advert. The receptionist told them to “talk to Hilldale across the library. He's the, ah, big one.”
Hilldale was an ogre mage. “Big” didn’t really capture him. He was almost twice their height. He greeted them politely, and introduced his halfling apprentice, as they did double and triple takes. Griseld cautiously asked “Hey dere... you a friendly ogre...?”
“Usually, yes, why?”
Some of the party felt that they needed to sit down. Eventually, Mabel questioned him about the mission. Meanwhile, Lafajet mewled over something or other in the background and the party chattered and missed half of what the ogre said. But Mabel, who was only adventurring as a sideline, was her usual professional self and took notes as Hilldale told the story:
“For the last few months, people have been vanishing whilst travelling through portals. They usually seem to be on a route that crosses the northwest corner of the Dragonmere. Interrupting a portal transfer is... difficult. An interesting phenomenon... But I digress. Now, there is a tower that has appeared suddenly at the west end of the Dragonmere. It wasn't there six months ago, which implies magical construction for something that size. It has a shining light on top which is causing shipwrecks when it’s mistaken for a sign of safe harbour. That’s how we heard about it, via the merchants’ guild. We suspect that the tower, which is clearly magical, is somehow related to the portal problem.”
So the guilds of mages and merchants were looking to hire a party of adventurers to sail to the tower, check out what was going on, and put a stop to it if it turned out to be nefarious. After Hilldale questioned them a little about their abilities, and they questioned him a little about the fee, agreement was reached. They were to sail on the morrow.
End of session
[1] Under the ironwood cosmetics, Merlinda’s armour is scale mail +2 which is worth 3024gp at NWN toolset prices. Scale mail +3 costs 6912gp. Add a fee for working with ironwood instead of normal metal, and I planned on a firm quote of 4500gp for the upgrade. Hence the “finger in the air” estimates of “about 5000 gold and two weeks” from the other merchants. For 3656gp she could have bought a ring of protection +2 off the shelf, which would do her twice as much good. I’m not sure if Merlinda’s player is roleplaying extreme fondness for her unusual armour, or she simply hadn’t realised how expensive +3 gear is compared to +2.
Jack quizzed them, paying particular attention to the crates, the standard manufacture of the trap kits, and the packing list they’d found. It seemed to tell him what he wanted to know, though he wasn’t saying exactly what that was. Lia seemed keen to press the matter, but she got distracted when Lafajet used the final conversation with their immediate employer as an opportunity to try flirting with Merlinda. Jack, who was getting pretty fed up with the party goofing around, sent them back to Suzail to meet Ahmed in the same place as before.
Back in Suzail, they tramped though the sewers over Lafajet’s continued whining and headed through the secret entrance to the Old Boot’s cellars to meet Ahmed. He thanked them, deflected questions about what was happening next, and offered them a choice of payment for the work they’d done and their continued discretion. They had the choice of 10,000 gold in cash, or the same amount as a tab at the Cold Chisel Smithy with the ability to jump the queue for custom work. They chose the latter.
The same notice board that had brought them the job for the temple of Waukeen had an advert from the Cloaktower, home to the mages’ guild in Suzail.
A guard confirmed that the Cloaktower, the Cold Chisel Smithy, and the famous equipment store known as Adventurer’s Mart were all grouped close together in the city’s shopping district. So off they went to the bright lights of Silvertown, shopper’s paradise for a metropolis of over 40,000.
Merlinda seemed determined to get her enchanted armour, made from carved elm scales hardened with the Ironwood spell, enchanted even further.[1] Three different vendors advised her that raising an enchantment from the second degree to the third would be very slow and expensive and she would get better value by enchanting her more mundane shield or simply buying a ring of protection off the shelf. But she was determined.
Adventurer’s Mart said it was likely to take a fortnight and cost around 5000 gold; they told her to go and see Toilir the Chisel at the Cold Chisel Smithy for a firm quote. She immediately complained that they were trying to rob her, then went into the smithy and said that Adventurer’s Mart had quoted her 4000 gold for an upgrade.
“Balls he did,” said Toilir, a formidable female dwarf, “he said I will examine it and give you a quote like he always does”. The store and the smithy had a long working relationship, and had seen more than a few adventurers before. Toilir had heard this line so many times before that she didn’t even throw the party out, just examined the armour and told Merlinda to come back in the morning for a firm quote.
Over the road in the Cloaktower, they enquired about the job advert. The receptionist told them to “talk to Hilldale across the library. He's the, ah, big one.”
Hilldale was an ogre mage. “Big” didn’t really capture him. He was almost twice their height. He greeted them politely, and introduced his halfling apprentice, as they did double and triple takes. Griseld cautiously asked “Hey dere... you a friendly ogre...?”
“Usually, yes, why?”
Some of the party felt that they needed to sit down. Eventually, Mabel questioned him about the mission. Meanwhile, Lafajet mewled over something or other in the background and the party chattered and missed half of what the ogre said. But Mabel, who was only adventurring as a sideline, was her usual professional self and took notes as Hilldale told the story:
“For the last few months, people have been vanishing whilst travelling through portals. They usually seem to be on a route that crosses the northwest corner of the Dragonmere. Interrupting a portal transfer is... difficult. An interesting phenomenon... But I digress. Now, there is a tower that has appeared suddenly at the west end of the Dragonmere. It wasn't there six months ago, which implies magical construction for something that size. It has a shining light on top which is causing shipwrecks when it’s mistaken for a sign of safe harbour. That’s how we heard about it, via the merchants’ guild. We suspect that the tower, which is clearly magical, is somehow related to the portal problem.”
So the guilds of mages and merchants were looking to hire a party of adventurers to sail to the tower, check out what was going on, and put a stop to it if it turned out to be nefarious. After Hilldale questioned them a little about their abilities, and they questioned him a little about the fee, agreement was reached. They were to sail on the morrow.
End of session
[1] Under the ironwood cosmetics, Merlinda’s armour is scale mail +2 which is worth 3024gp at NWN toolset prices. Scale mail +3 costs 6912gp. Add a fee for working with ironwood instead of normal metal, and I planned on a firm quote of 4500gp for the upgrade. Hence the “finger in the air” estimates of “about 5000 gold and two weeks” from the other merchants. For 3656gp she could have bought a ring of protection +2 off the shelf, which would do her twice as much good. I’m not sure if Merlinda’s player is roleplaying extreme fondness for her unusual armour, or she simply hadn’t realised how expensive +3 gear is compared to +2.
Morte
Explorer
And that's a wrap...
Well, that's the end of the story hour since I'm bringing the campaign to a close.
As I said, this was my first attempt at running a module completely of my own construction, rather than adapting those written by others. I only did this because I was forced to -- the NWN modules available off the shelf all have canned dialogue and scripted plot logic. Scripted modules are no fun to DM, and less fun to play since they pretty much prevent any improvisation.
The only people building freeform NWN modules are DMs making them for their own use. Now that I've tried it, I've found that building the stuff from scratch just takes too long and I don't want to do the work to keep up a couple of weekly campaign games. So I've decided to call it a day for the campaign, which of course means an end to the story hour.
Oh well, I got them from level 1 up to level 8 or 9...
Well, that's the end of the story hour since I'm bringing the campaign to a close.
As I said, this was my first attempt at running a module completely of my own construction, rather than adapting those written by others. I only did this because I was forced to -- the NWN modules available off the shelf all have canned dialogue and scripted plot logic. Scripted modules are no fun to DM, and less fun to play since they pretty much prevent any improvisation.
The only people building freeform NWN modules are DMs making them for their own use. Now that I've tried it, I've found that building the stuff from scratch just takes too long and I don't want to do the work to keep up a couple of weekly campaign games. So I've decided to call it a day for the campaign, which of course means an end to the story hour.
Oh well, I got them from level 1 up to level 8 or 9...
Lazybones
Adventurer
Nice story, thanks for adding some exposure for NWN...
The obvious solution to your current dilemma would be to share with those aforementioned DMs who have built open-ended, non-scripted settings. If only there was some place where such folks congregated, perhaps with some sort of built-in scheduling service to help find games...
I just finished an underdark campaign that had a default "plot," but which had no major scripted NPCs, and there was a ton of places for improvisation/plot twists. As soon as I get off my lazy butt I'm going to upload it to the Vault, and I'm sure there are other DM/builders who have done the same and wouldn't mind working with others to increase the number of good campaigns being run out there.
Lazy
The obvious solution to your current dilemma would be to share with those aforementioned DMs who have built open-ended, non-scripted settings. If only there was some place where such folks congregated, perhaps with some sort of built-in scheduling service to help find games...
I just finished an underdark campaign that had a default "plot," but which had no major scripted NPCs, and there was a ton of places for improvisation/plot twists. As soon as I get off my lazy butt I'm going to upload it to the Vault, and I'm sure there are other DM/builders who have done the same and wouldn't mind working with others to increase the number of good campaigns being run out there.
Lazy
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