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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 5477553" data-attributes="member: 16069">Fallcrest- Finding DreusSession 14 Part 1After Drake's Sermon...And so after Drake's fantabulous sermon the House of the Sun has some new converts to Pelor, a half-dozen citizens promise to be back for more- there's smiles all round, except in one corner of the church where Grundelmar slumps and cries.A little later the Dwarf, when he's dried his tears,  whispers that he would like a word 'in private' with Drake and heads for the back office- Drake follows him in, Maldor positions himself outside of the door- 'just in case'.Grundelmar starts off by being frightened, and a little angry, he thinks Drake is going to kick him out for being a bad Priest of Pelor, Grundelmar catalogues all he has done to help the House of the Sun. In truth the Church of Pelor was a ruin when Grundelmar arrived in Fallcrest- literally a ruin, the last priest of Pelor died about six years ago, and the building had been left abandoned- he has, in truth, rebuilt much of the place, and seemingly with no money- the House of the Sun has no funds.Drake reassures Grundelmar, he's kind to him- too kind.The Dwarf breaks down- it seems he has a secret, he declares himself 'a charlatan, a faker, a...', and finally Grundelmar's big secret is revealed- he's scared of the dark, yes that's right- a Dwarf scared of the dark, and specifically the dark to be found in confined spaces- like underground.Drake does his best not to laugh, consoles the Dwarf some more and promises that he will teach him how to get on with people, to be less angry, to be a proper Priest- he cannot fix his fear of the dark but he can make it easier for Grundelmar to live in the light.Grundelmar starts to believe, and decides to tell Drake another secret- the last priest of Pelor took the church funds, or rather then Pelorian gold was buried with the last priest, the problem is the priest was buried in a catacomb- underground, and in the dark- will Drake help him recover the churches gold. Drake agrees to think about the task a while, he's not happy looting tombs, particularly the tomb of a priest of Pelor.An Important Patron...Meanwhile the other PCs chat with Ressilmae Starlight, the friendly priest of Sehanine that brought the children over to the House of the Sun to hear Drake's sermon. Ressilmae, you'll remember, promised to look in to things for the PCs- Dreus etc. The Sehanine priest has a job for the PCs, not for him you understand but for some other patron, 'an important citizen of Fallcrest', is all he will say. He requires the PCs to head in to the Tombwood again, a catacomb belonging to the Moonstone family- the PCs catch the name, Moonstone is also the name of the big castle on the hill- where Lord and Lady Markelhay, the rulers of Fallcrest live. Anyway the catacombs are ancient and abandoned- no bodies lie within, nearly all of the Tombwood is in fact empty- it was formerly the burial site for the rulers and well-off (and respected) within the city, although no new bodies have been interred there in over a century. The Moonstone crypt however may hold a remnant of such a family, a necklace left behind, or at least unaccounted for when those formerly buried there were moved to the catacombs.The patron would like the PCs to investigate and return with the necklace if it is to be found, and 'she' is willing to provide them with some unspecified reward, which Ressilmae will add to by reducing the cost of the 'Cure Affliction' ritual he is to cast on Hoyt (the Wererat) by 50%. The PCs agree there and then- they will accomplish the task later immediately, Ressilame assures them the task is all above board, and that the PCs will first need to visit the Fallcrest Guard to collect the key to the ancient catacomb.The immediately goes out of the window moments later- see below.Allain To Be Slain...And then Maldor tells Jeb all about what he's been up to today, and in particular about the fact that he has learnt that Allain, the man that saved Jeb from certain death, is to be executed tomorrow morning at 6 AM. As I say the immediately (for the Moonstone Catacombs venture) goes straight out of the window.The PCs have a new task, a much more important task- to save Allain.The PCs head to the Town Hall, the Fallcrest jail is located beneath the Town Hall, the place is just closing alas, however Clerk Bartram Folly is just heading out- the PCs crowd him, and Jeb tells his story, about Allain, about how he saved him etc. in the hope the Clerk will have a kind heart.A little while later, and with Bertram now 10gp richer, the kind-hearted clerk lets the PCs in and down to the jail area- several Fallcrest Guards also get a little richer en route. Bertram however proves his worth and locates the right papers- the PCs discover that Allain was arrested some five or so nights previous by Sgt. Thurmina of the Five Arch Bridge Patrol. The PCs decide they will pay a visit to the good Sgt. A little later on.But for now they head down in to the cells, and to Allain-<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/40504969@N08/5479175898/" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5217/5479175898_718804452b.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></a>Allain- Dead Man Talking.And soon enough Allain is in tears, his friend Jeb is with him-Jeb? Jeb? Is that... you? We hit the roleplay button hard, although in my mind I'm running this as a skill challenge, or rather Jeb needs to ask the right questions, the associated dice rolls (for the skill challenge) are for him and his colleagues to help interpret Allain's answers and steer the conversation.What I'm trying to say here is that some Skill Challenges are just a background mechanic to the RP, the checks- which I initiate, in this instance Insight for Jeb, Diplomacy or Bluff for the other PCs, only come about when the guys ask the right questions (of me and of Allain).The PCs RP well, Jeb in particular, they get to hear all of Allain's story- he arrived in Fallcrest a week-or-so ago, he spent several days (without food or money) looking for Jeb (Jeb was away in Kiris Dahn), he got a days work on the docks, ended up going for food and drink with a bunch of dockers. Got invited to do some extra work for cash- a ship to unload (at night), he grabbed the chance- there was something wrong about it all, and yet...The guards arrived, the ship cut ropes and moved off, his new found friends held the guard up for a while, then ran- just leaving him. He tried to surrender, the guard tried to overpower him- to manacle him, he remembered the last time he was in manacles- in the Illithid mines (with Jeb). He snapped, fought back, grabbed a blade from one of the guards, and then...He killed a man.His actual words were-'Then, when the ship was almost loaded, the guards turned up- the guys that were with me seemed to vanish in to the night, they left me to face the music- the guards were rough, very rough, and I... I'd been drinking, I'd not eaten much- it was like being back there, they tried to put manacles on me, they held me down- I... I... must have, I don't know what happened- something snapped- inside, I grabbed a blade from one of the guards and...Dead!I killed one of them... I didn't mean... to. I didn't mean for any of it to happen- why weren't you here Jeb.WHY?'The PCs are a little lost, I think they expected to find Allain had been framed, but no. Drake is pretty certain from the start, he believes Allain deserves to be punished, even Jeb can see this although he needs to find out what exactly happened, whether there is anyone else to blame. The Githyanki suggests that execution is a little- final. They should try to discover what they can.The PCs are in the moral maze, some of them are still doubting the right of this, Jeb however pleads with them to help him.A plan is agreed- the PCs will head down to see Sgt. Thurmina, to question her, then will make for the docks- the Upper Quays, to see what they can find out. Before they leave Rogar manages to get Allain to remember one name from that drunken night- Gar, one of the men he was working with was called 'Gar', one of those helping to unload the ship that night.The above was Encounter #26, another Level 1 Complexity 1 Skill Challenge- I'm going to use a lot of these, at least as a mechanic to award XP for RP and progressing the PCs enquiries.Sgt. Thurmina is not at all helpful- particularly when she recalls the look on Bill Grundy's face as she held him in her arms. Bill Grundy was the Fallcrest Watchman that Allain slew- she goes so far as to tell the PCs the names of Bill's widow and now fatherless children. No new information is found, the ship got away as did the others on the dock that night- Allain was the only one captured, and he deserves to die for what he did. Jeb swears he will find a way of postponing Allain's execution, so he can investigate the matter properly- Thurmina mockingly states that he will have to gain the favour of someone very important to do that, the bastard Allain swings in the morning.The PCs investigations at the docks prove to be futile, there's a lot of activity- people are busy, and besides no one remembers nuffin'.The answer is obvious, Maldor actually has been saying it all along- we need to impress someone very important, we need to find the necklace for the mystery important patron in the Moonstone catacombs, and we need to do it now.The PCs head off to get the guard and thereby the key to said tomb.Next Time... Filthy Rotters.</blockquote>

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