Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
First things first, I can't take any of the credit for the writeup; it comes from one of my players who I don't think exists on the boards at this time. However feedback is (as ever) welcome, and I think session 2 is in about a month once we've finished another campaign, then we're likely to become more regular!
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The Cast (So Far):
Durzon Blint – (Revenant-Drow, Assassin-Executioner)
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs23/f/2007/319/c/e/Altair___Assassin__s_Creed_by_Rahll.jpg
A dark elf assassin who works for the thieves guild, at some point in his career he got careless or took on a job greater than his skills allowed and found himself bleeding in an alley, but that wasn’t the end for Durzon, raised by the Lady of Fate he is still coming to grips with his newfound un-life. Perhaps in death he’ll be a better assassin than when alive.
Brick – Goliath, Bard
http://dungeonsmaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/exiled_goliath.jpg
A gentle (somewhat) giant of man (or at least half of one), he’s plied many trades working as a courier, bouncer, enforcer and even an entertainer to make ends meet, his thoughts have recently turned to politics, believing he can make a difference in the city if only he can find enough people to hear his voice!
Uriel (or possible Yrriel) – Human, Paladin
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.wowinsider.com/media/2009/02/zach_tlahtsi_paladin-tank-dummies.jpg
Sadly I’m coming up a little blank here, so I shall leave this for Kevin to apply a little bit of info (and the correct spelling of his name).
Ashelyn – (Tiefling, Hexblade)
An asset of the thieves’ guild, a blind and scarred beggar girl that would tell peoples fortunes in the street. They took interest when her predictions were found to be truthful, kept in simple comfort her predictions have steered the guild to profit and power for the last decade.
Location Information (Copy & Paste from the Hand Out)
Ragesian Empire – The Ragesian Empire is located on central lowlands dominated by many lakes. While the core of the empire is populated heavily by orcs and half-orcs, the outer regions have wildly diverse cultures and populations, the result of having once been many separate nations, conquered by sword and torch. Their leader Emperor Drakus Coaltongue has recently gone missing and the key to his empire’s success the Torch of the Burning Sky along with him.
A side effect of this is that the deeply distrustful agents of the Empire have started a Scourge, their inquisition snatching Arcane Spell users for interrogation.
Shahalesti – On the far side of the mountains that mark Ragesia’s eastern border spreads the Shining Land of Shahalesti, ruled by Lord Shaaladel, a middle-aged eladrin who rose from being a military commander to the nation’s ruler during the ascension of the Ragesian Empire. Shahalesti was in danger of being conquered like Ragesia’s other neighbour’s, and Shaaladel’s aggressive displays of force—including the conquest and destruction of two nearby elven lands that were hostile to him—are credited as major reasons why Ragesia has so far not looked east for conquest.
Gatepass – Gate Pass lies in a rocky mountain pass running east to west between Ragesia and Shahalesti. Sheer cliffs mark its northern and southern borders, and fortifications built over centuries have made the city highly defensible, making it difficult to be annexed by either nation that surrounds it. These same fortifications, likewise, make it equally difficult for anyone to leave without going through any of the numerous gates that give the city its name
Dassen – The Kingdom of Dassen lies to the south of Ragesia, and the southwest of Shahalesti, its borders defined by craggy mountains defended by hundreds of small dwarven strongholds. Dassen’s people, a swarthy assortment of humans and dwarves, cherish their land, to the point that superstitious cavalrymen even put dirt in their boots so never have to stop touching the soil of their homeland. There are no mighty cities in Dassen, only thousands of farms and towns growing out from the nine castles of the king and his dukes. The largest city, Bresk, lies on a major river beside Steppengard’s castle, and is a hilly community built both above and below ground.
Lyceum Academy – At the end of a swampy isthmus on Dassen’s southern tip, the town of Seaquen is home to a school called Lyceum, devoted to teaching magic of all kinds. Students of Lyceum are encouraged to learn a variety of magical styles, and are trained in spelldueling techniques similar to Gabal’s in Gate Pass. They were relatively unknown in the region until recently, when Simeon, headmaster of the school, sent out a call to all the people in and around Ragesia, asking for them to stand up against the threat posed by the Ragesians and their new leader Leska.
The Academy is also the unofficial home of the Wayfarers Troupe.
The Wayfarers – Every port in the region has at one time or another been host to the Wayfarer Theatre, a beautifully-decorated ship that is both home and base of operations for the Wayfarers. The Wayfarers are both master acrobats and skilled mages, prone to dress in elaborate and eclectic costumes with elements cobbled together from dozens of lands.
Session Summary
New Year’s Eve, normally a time for great festivity and celebration but this year danger looms over the city. The Ragesian Scourge is slowly creeping closer and magicians across the city have gone missing, fled or taken. The more prominent spell casters of the city have called upon the people to stand united against the Scourge, but when two of the most vocal council members vanished support vanished. “What have they ever done for us, sat in their towers messing with things they shouldn’t” is a sentiment shared across the city.
The city is thick with snow, more than usual for this time of year but the people soldier on, its they do. Tonight there is a meeting at the Poison Apply Pub; three strangers each make their way to a secret meeting “Side Door… Midnight… Torrent” is their instructions, each given by different people for different reasons.
Uriel received his note from Helda Claearcal, a disciple of the Goddess of Strength. Durzon has been sent as a representative of the thieves’ guild, tasked with aiding torrent with her plan, what aids the city aids them. Finally brick, whose note was no doubt, was directed towards someone else. A man at a pub merely placed the note in his hand along with twenty gold coins; Brick believes he has been hired to perform a new year’s celebration.
They reach the pub to find it closed, confirming each is here for the meeting. Then they notice the windows are all boarded up and a notice nailed to the door proclaiming that the owner has been arrested and under interrogation with the Ragesians.
Inside awaits Torrent, a white haired warrior cleric and member of the Resistance, her axe set to one side as she sits at the lone table lit by a single candle. Beside her a young tiefling woman, bandages wrapped tightly around her eyes slowly sips beer from a small cup. Invited in person by Torrent, her handlers at the thieves guild accepted her terms at the insistence of the girl herself, ready to leave her secluded life.
“Our friends have arrived” says the girl quietly moments before there is a quiet knock at the side door and a deep whisper “Torrent?” she lets them in and guides them through the darkened tap room to the table, where brief introductions are made. Outside the Bells toll, ringing in the New Year, toasts are made and then business is conducted.
She explains her mission, the resistance has obtained military intelligence directly from the imperial palace, she must get this information out of the city (which is now under severe lockdown) hopefully before the empire attacks, and their army is only a day away. She has contacts at the Lyceum Academy to the south and a plan to get there if only we can get out of the city.
We must meet with a resistance spy that has been undercover for the last few years as a servant in the palace, a gnome called Rivereye Badgerface. His usual contact has been killed but Torrent has in her possession a signet ring and password to establish a meeting at the Depository, an armoured tower in the city that has rents out secure lockboxes.
However before we can conclude our totally super secret meeting the pub is attacked by thugs. Sadly it does not go well for them as everyone proves themselves quite competent including the blind orphan who transforms into something demonic and wrong wielding a blade of twisted metal and oozing shadow. Before people can question the transformation of the girl however the city is attacked, pots of alchemical fire a rained down from above by wyvern outriders and the pub itself is bombed forcing us to retreat. The city quickly descends into chaos, under guidance from torrent we head towards the depository.
On the way we are given chance for some daring do: First we meet a husband and wife, both badly burned leading their children away. Brick lends his aid, healing their wounds with his melodic magic. Secondly we find a damsel in distress atop a burning building, Uriel steps up, clambering up the side of the building, rescuing the lady from her balcony mere moments before it falls, earning a kiss as a reward.
We reach the gate separating our current district from that of the Depositories and find it choked with people, all in disarray, wounded and carrying scant possessions while the guards try to keep a modicum of order and civility. A dark shadow passes over the gate and the guard captain pauses mid speech, leaps off the top of the barricade screaming and tries to run away… the shadow strikes the crowd and they buckle causing a stampede of people trying to flee, we ourselves are overcome with fear (which once we’ve calmed a little deduce to be Dragon Fear, somewhere high above a massive dragon is soaring, lending his aid to the attack).
However the Dragon Fear panic has left the gate unobstructed and we continue, the tower of the depository in sight when we are approached by a rather foppish and distraught merchant desperately trying to find his pet weasel Kiki. The loss of a pet stirs something in the bard’s heart and we are lured into side questia, easing the mans fears and following the weasels tracks to an abandoned building, inside we follow the trail to a kitchen and a drain surmising the weasel is in the sewers a few experimental gropes down the tunnel, some weasel wrangling and a few weasel bites later Kiki is reunited with her master and we had found a mysterious box shoved down the drain and
tucked behind, no doubt someone’s stash spot and our Bard is rewarded with a set of shiny chain mail (no one else wanted to wear something they found in a sewer).
Finally we reach the tower and its guards, 3 burly looking orcs led by a dwarf. Torrent steps forward and presents her key, testing it on a lock attached to a wooden plaque worn on a chain around the dwarf’s neck. With a click the lock is sprung and the guards looked relieved, standing down. We are allowed in, passing through opulent gardens before reaching the high tower, where another guard lets us in and warns us against doing anything stupid like trying to open the wrong box. Upstairs we meet our gnome, but something isn’t quite right about him and within a few moments we realise he is an impostor and attempts to flee, where we meet his accomplish a ball of elemental energy known as a soul wisp.
(They were constructed by the primordial’s as troops to fight the gods, but were never good enough. With the primordial’s defeated they were forgotten, going their own way to promote balance and peace, so instinctively good creatures)
Chasing the “gnome” up a few flights we deduce that he’s using some kind of illusion, and his plan of climbing outside the tower comes to an end when he is outpaced by the bard running up the inside and booted off the balcony, falling four stories and landing with a bone breaking crunch. He is finally brought to an unconscious end by Durzon abseiling down after him. His illusion drops to reveal a Shahalesti (eladrin). The assassin happily steals the Eladrins boots (of spider climbing) for himself. Having cleared things with the guards about “our attacker” they let us take him inside for questioning provided “we can get a crack at him afterwards!”
After a little chat we manage to track down the location of the real Badgerface (locked in a lockbox above) and question the elf, he is a spy for Shahalesti and was after the military intelligence for themselves (the notion of sharing didn’t seem to occur to them) and they have the sealed lockbox with all the information in themselves, planning to flee the city in a tunnel they’ve been digging but it is still several days from completion. We then leave the elf to the guards, one particularly mean looking orc opens up a locked pulling forth all manner of sharp objects… we leave the tower quickly, aiming to reach a resistance safe house underneath the temple of wine and revelry.
However are trip is interrupted half way by an epic battle waged above us, one of the Gatepass gryphon riders is taking on a Wyvern rider, the two beasts and the riders are dragged into a death spiral with the nimble gryphon swooping out at the last moment, the scaled wyvern however slams into a house a few meters from us, its dead carcass strewn over the broken remains, inside of the ruins building a baby starts crying “Nooo not my child aaaaaaaaa” comes a female voice and then nothing. Kicking open the door we find a huge orc, a babe in one huge arm, his axe at its throat “Back away… I aim to be free of this place!” he growls.
At first Brick attempts to talk the orc down, he weakens his resolve with soothing words but not enough, the blade is brought back “no, none of your tricks!”. Uriel attempts to intimidate the orc, questioning the courage of a man that hides behind the child, the Orcs eyes go dark with rage and sweeps his blade across the babes throat, tossing it aside and licks the blade clean before giving us a royal kicking, we finally bring it down but at all left broken, bloody and spent. We limp our way to the temple, push our way passed the crowd of desperate and wounded and Torrent clicks open a hidden door down to the cellar and home of a small resistance cell, we take rest here, tomorrow we must find the elves, retrieve the information and flee the city. Gatepass has been brought to a panicked standstill by merely the advancing scouts and outriders of the empire, god knows what the full force of their army will do.
---------------
The Cast (So Far):
Durzon Blint – (Revenant-Drow, Assassin-Executioner)
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs23/f/2007/319/c/e/Altair___Assassin__s_Creed_by_Rahll.jpg
A dark elf assassin who works for the thieves guild, at some point in his career he got careless or took on a job greater than his skills allowed and found himself bleeding in an alley, but that wasn’t the end for Durzon, raised by the Lady of Fate he is still coming to grips with his newfound un-life. Perhaps in death he’ll be a better assassin than when alive.
Brick – Goliath, Bard
http://dungeonsmaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/exiled_goliath.jpg
A gentle (somewhat) giant of man (or at least half of one), he’s plied many trades working as a courier, bouncer, enforcer and even an entertainer to make ends meet, his thoughts have recently turned to politics, believing he can make a difference in the city if only he can find enough people to hear his voice!
Uriel (or possible Yrriel) – Human, Paladin
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.wowinsider.com/media/2009/02/zach_tlahtsi_paladin-tank-dummies.jpg
Sadly I’m coming up a little blank here, so I shall leave this for Kevin to apply a little bit of info (and the correct spelling of his name).
Ashelyn – (Tiefling, Hexblade)
An asset of the thieves’ guild, a blind and scarred beggar girl that would tell peoples fortunes in the street. They took interest when her predictions were found to be truthful, kept in simple comfort her predictions have steered the guild to profit and power for the last decade.
Location Information (Copy & Paste from the Hand Out)
Ragesian Empire – The Ragesian Empire is located on central lowlands dominated by many lakes. While the core of the empire is populated heavily by orcs and half-orcs, the outer regions have wildly diverse cultures and populations, the result of having once been many separate nations, conquered by sword and torch. Their leader Emperor Drakus Coaltongue has recently gone missing and the key to his empire’s success the Torch of the Burning Sky along with him.
A side effect of this is that the deeply distrustful agents of the Empire have started a Scourge, their inquisition snatching Arcane Spell users for interrogation.
Shahalesti – On the far side of the mountains that mark Ragesia’s eastern border spreads the Shining Land of Shahalesti, ruled by Lord Shaaladel, a middle-aged eladrin who rose from being a military commander to the nation’s ruler during the ascension of the Ragesian Empire. Shahalesti was in danger of being conquered like Ragesia’s other neighbour’s, and Shaaladel’s aggressive displays of force—including the conquest and destruction of two nearby elven lands that were hostile to him—are credited as major reasons why Ragesia has so far not looked east for conquest.
Gatepass – Gate Pass lies in a rocky mountain pass running east to west between Ragesia and Shahalesti. Sheer cliffs mark its northern and southern borders, and fortifications built over centuries have made the city highly defensible, making it difficult to be annexed by either nation that surrounds it. These same fortifications, likewise, make it equally difficult for anyone to leave without going through any of the numerous gates that give the city its name
Dassen – The Kingdom of Dassen lies to the south of Ragesia, and the southwest of Shahalesti, its borders defined by craggy mountains defended by hundreds of small dwarven strongholds. Dassen’s people, a swarthy assortment of humans and dwarves, cherish their land, to the point that superstitious cavalrymen even put dirt in their boots so never have to stop touching the soil of their homeland. There are no mighty cities in Dassen, only thousands of farms and towns growing out from the nine castles of the king and his dukes. The largest city, Bresk, lies on a major river beside Steppengard’s castle, and is a hilly community built both above and below ground.
Lyceum Academy – At the end of a swampy isthmus on Dassen’s southern tip, the town of Seaquen is home to a school called Lyceum, devoted to teaching magic of all kinds. Students of Lyceum are encouraged to learn a variety of magical styles, and are trained in spelldueling techniques similar to Gabal’s in Gate Pass. They were relatively unknown in the region until recently, when Simeon, headmaster of the school, sent out a call to all the people in and around Ragesia, asking for them to stand up against the threat posed by the Ragesians and their new leader Leska.
The Academy is also the unofficial home of the Wayfarers Troupe.
The Wayfarers – Every port in the region has at one time or another been host to the Wayfarer Theatre, a beautifully-decorated ship that is both home and base of operations for the Wayfarers. The Wayfarers are both master acrobats and skilled mages, prone to dress in elaborate and eclectic costumes with elements cobbled together from dozens of lands.
Session Summary
New Year’s Eve, normally a time for great festivity and celebration but this year danger looms over the city. The Ragesian Scourge is slowly creeping closer and magicians across the city have gone missing, fled or taken. The more prominent spell casters of the city have called upon the people to stand united against the Scourge, but when two of the most vocal council members vanished support vanished. “What have they ever done for us, sat in their towers messing with things they shouldn’t” is a sentiment shared across the city.
The city is thick with snow, more than usual for this time of year but the people soldier on, its they do. Tonight there is a meeting at the Poison Apply Pub; three strangers each make their way to a secret meeting “Side Door… Midnight… Torrent” is their instructions, each given by different people for different reasons.
Uriel received his note from Helda Claearcal, a disciple of the Goddess of Strength. Durzon has been sent as a representative of the thieves’ guild, tasked with aiding torrent with her plan, what aids the city aids them. Finally brick, whose note was no doubt, was directed towards someone else. A man at a pub merely placed the note in his hand along with twenty gold coins; Brick believes he has been hired to perform a new year’s celebration.
They reach the pub to find it closed, confirming each is here for the meeting. Then they notice the windows are all boarded up and a notice nailed to the door proclaiming that the owner has been arrested and under interrogation with the Ragesians.
Inside awaits Torrent, a white haired warrior cleric and member of the Resistance, her axe set to one side as she sits at the lone table lit by a single candle. Beside her a young tiefling woman, bandages wrapped tightly around her eyes slowly sips beer from a small cup. Invited in person by Torrent, her handlers at the thieves guild accepted her terms at the insistence of the girl herself, ready to leave her secluded life.
“Our friends have arrived” says the girl quietly moments before there is a quiet knock at the side door and a deep whisper “Torrent?” she lets them in and guides them through the darkened tap room to the table, where brief introductions are made. Outside the Bells toll, ringing in the New Year, toasts are made and then business is conducted.
She explains her mission, the resistance has obtained military intelligence directly from the imperial palace, she must get this information out of the city (which is now under severe lockdown) hopefully before the empire attacks, and their army is only a day away. She has contacts at the Lyceum Academy to the south and a plan to get there if only we can get out of the city.
We must meet with a resistance spy that has been undercover for the last few years as a servant in the palace, a gnome called Rivereye Badgerface. His usual contact has been killed but Torrent has in her possession a signet ring and password to establish a meeting at the Depository, an armoured tower in the city that has rents out secure lockboxes.
However before we can conclude our totally super secret meeting the pub is attacked by thugs. Sadly it does not go well for them as everyone proves themselves quite competent including the blind orphan who transforms into something demonic and wrong wielding a blade of twisted metal and oozing shadow. Before people can question the transformation of the girl however the city is attacked, pots of alchemical fire a rained down from above by wyvern outriders and the pub itself is bombed forcing us to retreat. The city quickly descends into chaos, under guidance from torrent we head towards the depository.
On the way we are given chance for some daring do: First we meet a husband and wife, both badly burned leading their children away. Brick lends his aid, healing their wounds with his melodic magic. Secondly we find a damsel in distress atop a burning building, Uriel steps up, clambering up the side of the building, rescuing the lady from her balcony mere moments before it falls, earning a kiss as a reward.
We reach the gate separating our current district from that of the Depositories and find it choked with people, all in disarray, wounded and carrying scant possessions while the guards try to keep a modicum of order and civility. A dark shadow passes over the gate and the guard captain pauses mid speech, leaps off the top of the barricade screaming and tries to run away… the shadow strikes the crowd and they buckle causing a stampede of people trying to flee, we ourselves are overcome with fear (which once we’ve calmed a little deduce to be Dragon Fear, somewhere high above a massive dragon is soaring, lending his aid to the attack).
However the Dragon Fear panic has left the gate unobstructed and we continue, the tower of the depository in sight when we are approached by a rather foppish and distraught merchant desperately trying to find his pet weasel Kiki. The loss of a pet stirs something in the bard’s heart and we are lured into side questia, easing the mans fears and following the weasels tracks to an abandoned building, inside we follow the trail to a kitchen and a drain surmising the weasel is in the sewers a few experimental gropes down the tunnel, some weasel wrangling and a few weasel bites later Kiki is reunited with her master and we had found a mysterious box shoved down the drain and
tucked behind, no doubt someone’s stash spot and our Bard is rewarded with a set of shiny chain mail (no one else wanted to wear something they found in a sewer).
Finally we reach the tower and its guards, 3 burly looking orcs led by a dwarf. Torrent steps forward and presents her key, testing it on a lock attached to a wooden plaque worn on a chain around the dwarf’s neck. With a click the lock is sprung and the guards looked relieved, standing down. We are allowed in, passing through opulent gardens before reaching the high tower, where another guard lets us in and warns us against doing anything stupid like trying to open the wrong box. Upstairs we meet our gnome, but something isn’t quite right about him and within a few moments we realise he is an impostor and attempts to flee, where we meet his accomplish a ball of elemental energy known as a soul wisp.
(They were constructed by the primordial’s as troops to fight the gods, but were never good enough. With the primordial’s defeated they were forgotten, going their own way to promote balance and peace, so instinctively good creatures)
Chasing the “gnome” up a few flights we deduce that he’s using some kind of illusion, and his plan of climbing outside the tower comes to an end when he is outpaced by the bard running up the inside and booted off the balcony, falling four stories and landing with a bone breaking crunch. He is finally brought to an unconscious end by Durzon abseiling down after him. His illusion drops to reveal a Shahalesti (eladrin). The assassin happily steals the Eladrins boots (of spider climbing) for himself. Having cleared things with the guards about “our attacker” they let us take him inside for questioning provided “we can get a crack at him afterwards!”
After a little chat we manage to track down the location of the real Badgerface (locked in a lockbox above) and question the elf, he is a spy for Shahalesti and was after the military intelligence for themselves (the notion of sharing didn’t seem to occur to them) and they have the sealed lockbox with all the information in themselves, planning to flee the city in a tunnel they’ve been digging but it is still several days from completion. We then leave the elf to the guards, one particularly mean looking orc opens up a locked pulling forth all manner of sharp objects… we leave the tower quickly, aiming to reach a resistance safe house underneath the temple of wine and revelry.
However are trip is interrupted half way by an epic battle waged above us, one of the Gatepass gryphon riders is taking on a Wyvern rider, the two beasts and the riders are dragged into a death spiral with the nimble gryphon swooping out at the last moment, the scaled wyvern however slams into a house a few meters from us, its dead carcass strewn over the broken remains, inside of the ruins building a baby starts crying “Nooo not my child aaaaaaaaa” comes a female voice and then nothing. Kicking open the door we find a huge orc, a babe in one huge arm, his axe at its throat “Back away… I aim to be free of this place!” he growls.
At first Brick attempts to talk the orc down, he weakens his resolve with soothing words but not enough, the blade is brought back “no, none of your tricks!”. Uriel attempts to intimidate the orc, questioning the courage of a man that hides behind the child, the Orcs eyes go dark with rage and sweeps his blade across the babes throat, tossing it aside and licks the blade clean before giving us a royal kicking, we finally bring it down but at all left broken, bloody and spent. We limp our way to the temple, push our way passed the crowd of desperate and wounded and Torrent clicks open a hidden door down to the cellar and home of a small resistance cell, we take rest here, tomorrow we must find the elves, retrieve the information and flee the city. Gatepass has been brought to a panicked standstill by merely the advancing scouts and outriders of the empire, god knows what the full force of their army will do.
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