WotBS 3.5 Scions of Gate Pass (SPOILERS IN THE POSTS)

[Bill T.]

Following Mrpereira's excellent example, this thread is to share my group's experience as I DM them through the War of The Burning Sky saga. We started playing in late 2014 but switched campaigns and DMs a time or two since then. At this rate, we should finish the saga by the end of the decade.


The Party
Per my suggestion, the PCs are all members of the larger merchant families of Gates Pass. The merchant families all contribute to the safe-keeping of the city, and the three PCs have been trained for and have participated in that sort of thing, running various minor missions on occasion. The PCs the players came up with are

• Ari, a whisper gnome monk/rogue/swordsage mishmash
• Erina, a human evoker/druid/therge mishmash
• Fitz, a human crusader/cleric/RKV mishmash
• Koba, Erina's owl familiar and urban companion

Hence, three and one half scions -- I bet you thought I was referring to the rules system!

I had everyone start at second level, but one of those two levels was a free level of the aristocrat NPC class (that is, I'm not tracking it for the purposes of party power or experience). I figured that would help buff up the small party without making them overly powerful.

Ari was originally written up as an elf who hated the Ragesians because they're orcs and hated the Shahelesti because her family was from one of the the neigbors Shaaladel attacked as he rose to power. I promptly suggested her family came from Innenotdar. Conveniently, when she decided she wanted to play a gnome instead, there was a mention of a gnome wagon in a ravine in the fire forest. Before war came to Gate Pass, she participated in the family business of stealing information from other families and somehow profiting on that information.

Erina started as a druid, working in the supply side of her family's business -- to wit, the purchase, distribution, and sale of psychoactive substances -- while attending Gabal's school in the evenings. Her fiancé was killed in a Ragesian drug raid. Oh, and she just so happens to play the recorder to relax.

Finally, Fitz came from a family of old money that made its riches selling magic items and supplies for making them. As the second son, he was a wild playboy until the Ragesians "inquisited" his brother on a trade route (his notes actually say his brother was killed, but I may want to change that). Now he has to be the diligent eldest son. When I pointed out to Fitz's player that an RKV prerequisite is worshipping Wee Jas, he embraced it fully. Thus, Fitz is a strident legalist, demanding that every action of his, and his allies, follow the law.

So, as one of the players summarized it, our heroes are an extortionist, a drug dealer, and an arms trader. The fate of Gate Pass is in good hands!

[edited for formatting]

 

[Bill T.]

Adventure I, Act I

Adventure I, Act I
"Three adventurers walk into a bar..."

Fitz and Torrent arrive first. Fitz tries to get excited about the cloak and dagger aspects of slipping into a side door to meet the Resistance, but quickly wishes he'd gone to a better party. Ari and then Erina arrive soon thereafter and tersely introduce themselves before Torrent gets down to business: "“The city’s in trouble. The Ragesian army is marching on us...."

After she finishes, Fitz asks for a repeat of the part in the middle. A few clarifying questions later and both Erina and Ari realize there are people walking around upstairs, and everyone hears "whumping" in the distance.. The heroes position themselves right before the chaos begins. The heroes do well at first -- Fitz's command to the first person coming down the stairs to retreat bottles up that group, and then he and Torrent then bar the front door to delay that group. There is then a desperate attempt to find an alternate exit while Ari and Fitz take on the intruders. One of the intruders surrenders, is knocked out, and eventually dragged out of the burning building by the ever-diligent Fitz.

The players were excited to finally be starting a campaign in a tavern. Having it burn down around them was an unexpected twist.​

At this point, "the Big Guy on Horseback" orders the remaining attackers to stand down, but our party face (Fitz, yet again) does not think to ask his name.

It's not clear to me that the players really understood what was going on at this point, but, in hindsight, they handled the combat well. Furthermore, Kathor was very impressed that Fitz rescued an unconscious attacker, which greatly colored their next encounter with him.​

As the heroes make their way to the depository, Fitz and Erina heal the injured family, and Fitz explains to Torrent how to rescue the woman in the burning building. Having learned that the city really is under attack and that the Big Guy wasn't lying, the heroes do the obvious thing -- they split up and head in different directions. Fitz, a member of the Westgate family, needs to go home to get his armor and plans to meet the others at the depository. Erina and Torrent encounter a bat-winged creature overhead and flee in terror, splitting the party further, and Ari manages to horribly offend a man looking for his pet weasel. Eventually, however, they all get back together at the depository.

Fitz's player explained to me that Fitz's behavior in this, while superficially heroic, was merely his attempt to obey the laws of Gate Pass as he understood/invented them -- in other words, lawful neutral and not intentionally "good" -- an important point given the fact Fitz rebukes undead and has the Death domain. In any case, he got the bulk of the experience points for heroics in this section.

Ari's crummy charisma turned the encounter with the man looking for his weasel into a nice bit of comedy.
​

I'll pause a bit in the story here to see what sort of comments you, the reader, have.

 

[Mrpereira]

It is always nice to be inspiring others, thank you

Like many have commented to me in my thread, the most interesting parts to me are the experiences and thoughts you have as the DM. I liked comment of the players finally getting the stereotype beginning of a tavern

Anyway as the story should be known to those of us reading this it is fun to see which funny turns and twists the same story took your group, Both based on their actions as well as on your ideas on how to twist the story.

I am looking forward to seeing how your Group did things, it is almost a shame that the elf turned into a gnome with the Innenotdar story, based on how it went in my Group

 

[Bill T.]

I am looking forward to seeing how your Group did things, it is almost a shame that the elf turned into a gnome with the Innenotdar story, based on how it went in my Group

Why do you think it a shame? Ari's hatred of the Shahalesti has developed to pathological levels over the course of the campaign so far. I can't decide if I'm impressed or appalled -- both, I suppose.

 

[Bill T.]

Adventure I, Act II

Adventure I, Act II

Dramatis Personae

• Ari, a whisper gnome monk/rogue/swordsage mishmash
• Erina, a human evoker/druid/theurge mishmash
• Fitz, a human crusader/cleric/RKV mishmash
• Koba, Erina's owl familiar and urban companion
• Torrent, of course

The heroes walk into the depository and immediately see Rivereye Badgerface coming down to greet them. In conversing with him, they quickly realize something is amiss, and so are somewhat coy in their discussion, until Torrent spills the beans by pointing out that Peppin is dead. "Rivereye" tries to flee out the window under the covering fire of the archon, but Erina tackles him, and the rest of the party force the archon to flee. Erina and Fitz then head upstairs to eventually find the real Rivereye and the repository guard. Meanwhile, Ari tries to intimidate Larion, but, between her small size and her abysmal charisma, makes him laugh instead, so she settles for carving designs in his skin with her dagger.

Having the party mage (she didn't have any druid levels at this point) tackle Larion was amazing and awesome. Larion would likely have gotten away otherwise, and the party would have been hard pressed to find the next lead.

On the other hand, I was annoyed for weeks about Ari torturing Larion -- partially a case of a player feeling like she can act with impunity, and partially her failure to realize that this character, unlike the previous one, is incompetent at intimidation. I should have remembered that Torrent was there, as she would have reacted angrily and, if necessary, violently to Ari's actions. If it comes up again, I may have the Shahalesti demand Ari be turned over for Crimes Against Elvendom, but she's been acting decently since.
​

Rivereye explains the situation, so the party returns to where Larion is being held to further question him. There attempts at interrogating fail miserably, and it's only the threat of spending the entire night listening to endless poorly-worded questions backed up by unconvincing threats does he eventually give up and say he's working for Shealis.

The dice simply did not want the heroes to find out about Shealis, so I had to come out and tell them anyhow.​

The party tracks down and kills the injured Ragesian air-cavalryman in a fairly unremarkable fight. They then proceed to the Temple of the Aquiline Cross and Safe House. To stop the goth half-elf from playing her depressing tunes, Fitz tries putting an axe through her instrument's strings. That doesn't stop her, but he eventually convinces her to stop somehow. A bit later, when a fight breaks out, Fitz gives a "these people are not your enemy" speech that manages to placate the crowd.

Once again, Fitz gets all the credit for being "heroic" -- although axing someone's musical instrument was an unlawful act (although he did reimburse her). He'll have to mention that at confession. The players also pointed out that, since their PCs were all citizens of the city, the could have simply gone home rather than to a safe house.​

The next morning, the heroes go to Gabal's school and Diogenes, recognizing Erina, lets them in. After a brief discussion, they go to talk to Shealis and agree not to try to take the case from her in return for a peek at it and further updates from the Shahalesti once they start examining it.

That was much too easy, as others have noted. There's no compelling reason to take the case, so long as someone vaguely allied gets it and promises to share, which Shealis was quite willing to do. That said, it's good have ways for the party to accomplish its goals without drawing blood.​

They then, for reasons not recorded in my notes, get split up from Shealis and have to make their own way to her lair. They talk to the imp, make sense of its word games, but decline any further assistance from it. They enter the gatemaker's shop on their own and get to see the case's contents. Ari is unable to decipher the contents, but they do inspect the architectural drawings. Fitz speculates that the prison is being used to hold spellcasters captured by the inquisition, whereas Ari speculates it is being used to hold someone important.

Say what? Players reading my notes again? These kinds of insights are not unusual in our group, and it's not surprising that Fitz thought of it.​

Fitz told Shealis about the imp but did not mention it was playing word games.

I decided this omission had a couple of consequences: Since Shealis did not know the imp would have been happy with an empty case, she ended up fighting and killing the imp. As a result, the Ragesians had to call a second devil to hunt down Shealis in addition to the one sent after the PCs, since they did not know who had the case. Secondly Shealis told Fitz she owes him a favor -- anyone have any ideas on what it should be?​

Oof, that was a long act to type up. Enough for tonight!

 

[Bill T.]

Adventure I, Acts III and IV

Adventure I, Act III

Dramatis Personae

• Ari, a whisper gnome monk/rogue/swordsage mishmash
• Erina, a human evoker/druid/theurge mishmash
• Fitz, a human crusader/cleric/RKV mishmash
• Koba, Erina's owl familiar and urban companion
• Torrent, still

The heroes talk to Erdan Menash and get in his good graces. They walk away with a musical sai, a bow in pastel rainbow colors, a smiley-face buckler, and the ubiquitous dolphin-shaped falchion, respectively.

The heroes run into the Black Horse thugs posing as town guards and quickly realize they're not the real thing. The Black Horse thugs are lucky to get away unbeclobbered, although they do notice Rantle, hear his story, and take the message for his sister. They then proceed to Captain Herreman's barracks and, after a bit of small talk, get escorted out of the city.

This escape was a pretty underwhelming. Erina's player floated email suggesting that her family knew the ways through the sewers (they're drug lords, remember), and I'd even sketched up a bit of sewer and a white dragon as an obstacle. I wish I had made Erdan harder to find, because her idea sounded like more fun and a more interesting challenge, but she never brought it up during the session.​

Adventure I, Act IV

The heroes headed south and Koba notices the Black Horse thugs hiding in ambush. The heroes manage to heroically sneak through the snow and stab the pair overlooking the road in the back, but quickly end up being assaulted by the remaining thugs on the trail. The battle goes badly for the thugs, and Renard ends up getting shot before he can escape, so the rest of the thugs surrender -- although one shoots Renard in the head with his crossbow for good measure. After a quick interrogation, Fitz takes them to camp and gives them horses sufficient to get back to Gate Pass so they don't freeze out in the wilderness.

The heroes then make their way to where Kathor Danava is positioned. As I'd indicated earlier, Kathor is not particularly interested in fighting, and doubts he could defeat them all anyhow. There is some back and forth between Fitz and Kathor. They manage to learn his name (at last!) and his relationship to those besieging Gate Pass. At this point Fitz rather pointedly and pushily demands that Kathor never ever returns to Gate Pass, not even to get his belongings. Kathor resists at first, but having no attachment to the city, ultimately leaves and heads..uh, some other direction.

This may look like a problem, since Kathor is supposed to reappear in a later adventure, but I think this is actually a great role-playing opportunity: At some point, Kathor learns what his father and Leska are up to and makes his way to Seaquen to demand that Fitz release him from his oath. If Fitz refuses, Kathor can then demand a duel with Fitz. Me, I'm hoping Fitz refuses. One big question: When and how does Kathor get the information that leads him to fight for Gate Pass?​

The heroes then go through the loot the thugs left behind. They never manage to find the key to the tunnel and have to force their way in, but they figure out the body in the tunnel was a wizard or sorcerer, perform final rites, and get to see the power of the shroud. Nonetheless, Fitz has to Identify the shroud to learn the words to activate it (I didn't mention he is a cloistered cleric, did I?).

The first adventure took our group two three-hour sessions to complete -- pretty fast, but that's generally the case for characters at this low a level. Everyone seemed involved and interested, and they had some good insights that only improve as they get further on. Stay tuned!​

 

[Mrpereira]

The first adventures are pretty fast, but it will change later on - in my experience it typically does with higher levels.

Another suggestion for Kathor would be to have him approach the players later on in Gate Pass as per the adventure (if I recall correctly) and roleplay the situation. He is fighting his own mental battle between honouring his oath or doing the right thing according to his moral standards. That should give a nice roleplaying scene - and if all else fails he can make the challenge there.

 

[Bill T.]

Adventure I, Act V

Adventure I, Act V

Dramatis Personae

• Ari, a whisper gnome monk/rogue/swordsage mishmash
• Erina, a human evoker/druid/theurge mishmash
• Fitz, a human crusader/cleric/RKV mishmash
• Koba, Erina's owl familiar and urban companion
• Torrent

The heroes make their way to the Ja-Nafeel houshold at the edge of the fire forest. They treat Crystin with a fair degree of suspicion at first. They all remember the story of Haddin, and draw fairly reasonable conclusions about what went on. Still, it's just a place to spend the night so far as everyone's concerned.

They're eager to move on the next morning, but Inquisitor Boreus, of course, has other plans. The attack isn't very effective -- the front stairs to the house turns into a conga line for Boreus, and the skeletons at the back quickly fall victim to Fitz's ability to command undead. Torrent first takes a nearly lethal hit from the gnome with the crossbow out back. Erina keeps getting her spells rebuked, much to her dismay. Eventually, though, Boreus loses most of his allies and is forced to surrender.

Yeah, a gnome. For fairly minor reasons, I didn't want to include goblins at this point in the campaign. That said, I don't think I rewrote those two NPC rogues, I just "reskinned" them.

Others commenters have said that Boreus started by setting the house on fire. I wish I had thought of that. It would have been a much more sensible attack, especially since I had decided that the lower level of the house was the barn, which forced the frontal assault to climb the stairs.​

The party ties up and gags the Inquistor but leave his mask with him. Shortly thereafter, Crystin goes downstairs, escorted by Erina and Ari, to milk the cows. At this point, she suddenly realizes that Haddin has been controlling her life for years now and begs Erina and Ari to help her get away from him. They head back upstairs to tell Fitz, and suddenly Crystin becomes the obedient daughter again, so they drag her back into the barn. One of them goes upstairs to get Fitz, who takes Boreus upstairs to confront Haddin. Fitz is not surprised when Crystin suddenly becomes the obedient daughter as Boreus leaves the barn.

The interaction between the Inquisitor's Mask and the enchantment on Crystin wasn't mentioned in the adventure, but it was a convenient way to let the party know what was going on between her and Haddin. Still, tracking that was a bit of a challenge for me -- every move I had to check to see if Boreus and Crystin got within ten feet of each other. Fortunately, Crystin was very afraid of combat at this point.

I'm not sure why Boreus was allowed to keep his mask after the battle; maybe the heroes didn't realize it was magical.​

So, Fitz the ever-diligent Passes Judgement on both Haddin and Boreus. He decides to leave Boreus in the tender care of the local authority: Haddin. Haddin will need an assistant anyhow, since the heroes have decided they're going to drag Crystin away from her awful father, thereby freeing her from her father's obviously illegal enchantment.

OK, now the first adventure is ended -- I'd forgotten if the Ja-Nafeels were at the end of the first adventure or the start of the second.

Other posters have said they enjoyed having Haddin along, but I'm glad they left him behind. He'd have been an irritant that I didn't really want to bother with. On the other hand, the decision to leave Haddin alive presented a problem -- Crystin was still enchanted by him and would therefore continue to insist she return to her father. Stay tuned to learn how I solved this problem!​

 

[Mrpereira]

In my campaign Haddin was/is indeed an irritant, but to such a degree that he is probably more hate than Leeska, Ragesia, Shahalesti and everyone else put together. My Group - out of character - realized pretty soon that Crystin was charmed/dominated (and one of the players too), but in game they had no clue, so it gave some fun roleplaying moments for us. That said, I can easily see how it would make Things smoother and easier not to have him along for the ride. He was pretty useless most of the way

 

[RangerWickett]

I always love hearing what people did to Haddin, that bastard. Leaving the inquisitor with him as a pet, though? Damn that's dark.