Justinian's Erendar II Campaign (1/30/04 - Session 5a)

[Justinian]

Interlude – The Axemen

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Description: The Axemen are the most prestigious and successful mercenary guild in Erendar. Their badge is engraved with words “We never fail” in Dwarven, and they uphold this boast. The guild also has a higher turnover rate than any other mercenary guild, since members are expelled if they fail to complete a contract, at which point the contract is given to another member. Each member must take a contract every three months.

Background: The Axemen were founded by two dwarven brothers who came to Erendar in about the seventh century looking for adventure. They saw that the city guard kept a close eye on town, but left the villages outside of Erendar to fend for themselves, sending only occasional patrols to keep order. The Axemen filled the gap by serving as a central location where people could bring their problems to be solved. At first, they were bounty hunters, but the jobs have grown more complex as time goes by. One of the brothers is still alive, though venerable for a dwarf, and his word runs the guild.

Location: The House of the Axemen is a large stone building in southern Erendar, just off the main road.

Notable Traits: Though it doesn’t have as much in the way of in-guild services as some guilds do, its network of merchants and healers is second to none, and members receive a price discount while on a contract. The guild house is mostly used for practice grounds and as an armory. The badge of the Axemen is a small adamantine medal with two crossed axes and the words “We never fail” in Dwarven across the top. It is generally worn over the heart, embedded in armor or sewn into clothes. The Axemen use a variety of weapons and armor styles, and are always experienced with whatever they use. The inexperienced Axemen are unable to fulfill the contract requirements, and quickly die or are expelled.

Requirements: The Axemen have little in the way of formal requirements, simply sending potential recruits on a test mission, and then having them swear by the Code. The pragmatic founders of the guild assumed that incompetence would be soon obvious, and be rewarded with death on a contract.

Style: The Axemen are strictly professional, and often take contracts other deem impossible. One can always depend on a team of Axemen to either finish the job or die trying, at which point they are usually raised to complete it on the second attempt.

Metagame Notes
Requirements: Pay the first job’s reward to the guild as an initiation fee, follow the Code, and complete four contracts per year.
Benefits: Healing spells (including raise dead) at a 50% discount during a contract, and basic supplies at a 25% discount. Healing and supplies at a 5% discount at all times. Resale of equipment at 60% rather than 50%. Living quarters for up to one month when between contracts, storage space for up to one year at a time as long as membership is retained.


The Code of the Axemen

1. We never fail.
An Axeman must always complete a contract. Raise dead will be provided at a reduced cause while an Axeman is on a contract, but death does not release the obligation. If at any point an Axeman considers himself unable to fulfill the requirements of his contract, he must procure assistance from another Axeman, at whatever cost is deemed appropriate.

2. We do not allow internal conflict.
Axemen never kill each other. If combat occurs, all damage dealt must be nonlethal. If there any dispute among members, a judgment will be rendered by the guild leaders.

3. We never reveal our contracts.
Axemen are not allowed to tell anyone what assignments they are completing or have completed. While it is permissible to talk about exploits, for purposes of spreading fame, no link to the Axemen must be disclosed. Some contracts are not allowed to be divulged at all.

4. We do not allow external conflict.
Axemen do not fight with other mercenary guilds. This can lead to large-scale wars, and weakens the guild as a whole. Axemen may defend themselves, but may not initiate combat.

Breaking any one of these points is punishable by expulsion from the guild.

 

[Justinian]

This is a little longer than usual, since it's been several weeks since I updated.

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Departed PCs:

• Othi, elf druid. Left to help his family, and avenge a relative's death.

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Session 4: Swords for Hire


The orcs fulfilled their promise, and sent the group downriver on a barge filled with copper and other trade goods. A few other travelers bought passage south to Erendar on the barge with them, including a bard named Marrek. He livened up the trip by telling tales of adventures, and eventually one of the group started talking about the mines of Bellhold and what they went through. When they got to the part where the Dragonstone shattered, Marrek was shocked. He asked them to repeat the story in detail, and then went off by himself and started reciting something in a low voice. This continued throughout the night.

The next day, he told them why he had been surprised. Like most bard tales, it began long ago. Five centuries ago, more or less, when a small-time cooper named Julian suddenly walked out of his market stall and said to no one in particular, “Flame comes out of the east, and the earth shall rend the speaker apart.” As he finished saying this, Erendar was invaded. Warships from the east attacked the harbor, and sorcerers rained fire from the sky. During the panic that followed, Julian stood peacefully in front of his stall, and continued speaking. A nearby bard had witnessed this, and found it unusual enough to keep listening. Nearly a full day later, Julian was still speaking. The bard was still listening to him, even though little of what he said made sense. Suddenly, the buildings began to shake as earthquakes and disintegrates tore city and ground apart. A fissure opened up below Julian, and he disappeared into it as falling rocks crashed in around him. At this point, the bard fled back to safety, but he had memorized all of what Julian had said. In the years to come, bardic circles passed on and analyzed Julian’s words. Though incomprehensible at first glance, his words, in hindsight, often seemed to foretell major events. His words became known as the Proclamation of Julian, but they were kept secret by the bards, and handed down from generation to generation. One day, they believed, it would all become clear.

Marrek had matched one of the verses with their story about the Dragonstone, or so he believed. “The breakers of the sapphire heart shall ride the copper river. They shall rid the sky of stones, and their word will drown the song.” Marrek believed that the Dragonstone was the sapphire heart mentioned. In his opinion, they were currently riding on the copper river, in a way. Marrek didn’t know what the second sentence was about, but he said that he’d record the information in the annotations to the Proclamation. Perhaps someone else would be able to figure it out. He was pleased to find even this much correspondence with current events.

They arrived at Erendar shortly afterwards, and gathered up the wagon and their gear to enter the city. There was a group of guards at the gate, and one of the guards came out to talk to them. He introduced himself as Jared, the lieutenant on duty. It was his job to explain the laws and requirements currently in force in the city. As there had been no such position when any of the group had left Erendar, they asked him what had happened since.

After the gods disappeared, the nobles moved into a position of power. The most powerful formed a loose council and convinced the City Guard to support them. They promised to enforce the taxes and keep the city running (and not incidentally, pay the Guard’s wages). This worked well for awhile, but it seemed that some people in Erendar didn’t believe the nobles had quite as much of a godly right to rule them. Demonstrations began to spread, and they weren’t usually peaceful. The nobles had no choice but to reassign most of the City Guard to work as bodyguards. As Erendar used to be a large and law-abiding town, there were enough to give every major noble three bodyguards, and at least one bodyguard for the minor nobles. This pleased the nobles, but no one else. The City Guard was displeased about being reduced to a skeleton force that could barely keep order in the main streets of the city, and the people were unhappy that they couldn’t express their displeasure in the traditional way. Using the continued discontent as a leverage point, the nobles gained more and more legal power. Currently, anyone who attacked a noble could be executed on the spot by his bodyguards, and nobles were notoriously loose in their definitions of an attack. The Guard recommended that all travelers peacebond their weapons and allow them to be officially sealed, so that it could be proved whether they had drawn a weapon if necessary.

This was disturbing news to the party, especially the part about power-hungry, cruel nobles. They had their weapons peacebonded at the gate, and asked Jared if he knew of any good places to stay that had stables for their wagon and horses. He recommended a large inn named The Broken Spear in the southwestern part of town, and gave them directions. It was easy to find, since it was on a street mostly occupied by tall warehouses. The Broken Spear was clearly a warehouse that had been thoroughly converted to an inn, and it also looked very popular. The party made their way inside and managed to rent a large room that could hold them all for about a week, planning to look around town before deciding what to do next.

Othi contacted some of the elves in town, and heard disturbing news about his family. Apparently, his aunt had been murdered recently, and his family was in danger. He decided that he was needed in the elven capital more than in Erendar, and prepared to leave immediately. The rest of the group wished him luck and gave him his share of the gold, but didn’t want to leave town again so quickly. Popo took most of the unidentified items over to the psionics guild to have them identified, and the group then split up the ones that were useful from the ones that simply represented gold. The most interesting item was a whistle that could generate a cone of sonic energy once per day in the hands of a psion. The group agreed that it was worth keeping, and Popo was anxious to test it out.

The next day, most of the group researched the opportunities for inebriation in town, since the week-long harvest festival began tomorrow. Aoshi, however, was researching possibilities for jobs. He first went to the shrine of Garaihn in the center of town, to see if anyone was there. A single priest remained, named Brock, but he didn’t seem very lucid. His sole focus was on finding his god again, and he begged Aoshi to help him, although he had nothing to offer in return. Aoshi promised Brock that he’d definitely hunt for Garaihn, if he came up with any leads. Aoshi went next to the headquarters of the City Guard, and asked if they needed any short-term help on the streets. He was told by the sergeant on duty that the Guard wasn’t allowed to recruit anyone at this time. Aoshi then asked if there was any place he could get work, and the sergeant recommended joining a mercenary guild. He suggested one called the Axemen, originally founded by dwarves but now an eclectic and highly respected guild. Aoshi thanked him and went to the Axemen guildhouse. He spoke with a representative of the guild, and determined the entrance requirements. Considering this a good day’s work, Aoshi went back to find the rest of the group. They were more concerned with preparations for the feast tomorrow, and said that the guild could be dealt with after the holidays were over.

Aoshi spent the next week studying various creatures in the psionics guild, preparing for when he could shift his shape. The others caroused with the city in a lengthy denial of the current stifling political situation. The nobles were paying the entire cost of the feasting this year, and many people were mollified by this action, forgetting their previous disgruntlement.
The group rents a smaller room at The Broken Spear to hold ther supplies, but holds off on renewing the larger room’s rental until they have talked to the guild about jobs. When they arrive, the guild representative is more than happy to explain the requirements of membership. [See earlier post for details on the guild.] He shows them several contracts that could be done, and explains that the reward for their first contract is taken by the guild as an entry fee. After some deliberation, the group picked the one that offered the least, and was closest.

This contract had been posted by an alchemist who was experimenting with nonmagical oils that simulated magical potions. He had developed a formula that worked like enlarge person, except that it worked on more than humanoids. Unfortunately, he found this out when some spiders got into his workbench, and grew to the size of small dogs. The alchemist fled his workshop, locked and sealed the door to his house, and went to the Axemen’s Guild for help.

They set up a meeting with the alchemist at their inn, and questioned him for some time about the specific details of the problem. He wasn’t sure how large the spiders were, since he suspected that the potion might have continued to work. He offered them some flasks of alchemist’s fire in case they found it useful, and gave them the key to his door.

As the group wanted to complete this contract before the end of the day, they hurried off to clear the house of spiders. Nothing came out as they opened the door, so Feliks carefully stepped into the front room, followed by his dog. The walls were covered in webs, but no spiders could be seen. The others filed in behind him, and Popo lit a torch to illuminate the darkened room. As he closed the door so that nothing could escape from them, a spider even larger than Feliks’s dog sprang forward, and several smaller spiders came down from the ceiling to attack. It didn’t take long for the adventurers to cut through the spiders, with little injury, and Aoshi continued through the room to the hallway beyond. He saw the stairs down to the alchemist’s workshop, but before he was halfway there, he was attacked by even more spiders. They bit him more than once, and he retreated back into the front room so others could take the lead. Feliks moved forward, and between his sword and Popo’s lesser concussions, the spiders only lasted long enough to poison Feliks once. He was weakened, but decided to press on. They moved down into the basement, and saw spiders everywhere. A large spider crouched over the shattered remains of a worktable in the center, and a puddle of strange liquid could be seen on the floor. Medium-sized spiders were scattered around the room, and the shelves around the room had smaller spiders all over. Popo figured this was a good time to try out the psionic whistle, and luckily moved before the spiders. He eliminated most of the smaller spiders with it, wounding the larger ones, and then got out of the way for the fighters to come down. These spiders began trying to web Feliks, Aoshi, and the animal companions, but only delayed the inevitable. Slowly, the medium spiders dropped to the combined attacks, although one of them managed to further poison Feliks. Luckily, Aoshi was able to kill the large spider with his ranseur before it could reach him.

With all the visibly dangerous spiders dead, the group quickly cleared an area around the pool of liquid, and searched the room for any other dangers. Riguallaun went to get the alchemist while the others guarded the room. The alchemist was soon back, and he mixed some chemicals into the liquid, changing its color. He pronounced it safe enough now, and sent them back to the guild with a signed acknowledgement of completion.

The group returned to the guild and were confirmed as members. The guild representative gave them each a medallion for identification, and then they returned to The Broken Spear. Even though there wasn’t much room, they hung hammocks in the room with their gear, and rested there while Feliks healed from the spider poison.

 

[Justinian]

New PCs:

• Dexter, half-elf rogue.

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Session 5a: The Rat That Walks Like a Man

After Feliks had recovered, they headed back to the guildhall to look for some new contracts. While they were there, a man named Dexter asked if he could join them, as doing contracts alone had proved too difficult. He said that he had some talent with bow and blade, and the group decided that they could use someone like that. Riguallaun decided to leave at this point, since he had been having trouble contributing lately, and wanted to go back home. Feliks had the idea of moving their stored equipment from the inn to the guildhall, and they managed to fit it all into the space they were allotted.

They looked for a contract that was both simple and close to town, and found a small village nearby that needed help with some rat swarms. Since most of them felt that they could handle a bunch of rats, they signed it and prepared to leave.

As they returned to the inn, three people intercepted them on the road. Silently, they attacked. Popo and the enemy sorcerer exchanged lesser concussions and magic missiles, while the others surrounded the enemy fighter and shaman. Dexter hung back, shooting into the fight, and was able to spot the fourth enemy before he could sneak into the combat. In a short time, they had eliminated all of the opponents. As an afterthought, they stabilized the fighter, and took the bodies into a nearby warehouse to examine them.

None of the bodies looked wholly human, and all were branded on the wrist with a different symbol. The fighter’s skin had a grayish cast, and he was unusually tough-skinned. They managed to charm him into talking, and questioned him at length. He informed them that he and his companions were part of a guild, based on their elemental heritage. The four of them, representing each of the elements, had been sent to capture the group. The information had included descriptions of each person, as well as both animals. He had no other information, and would not reveal who his leader was. They took him to the City Guard, and had him put in jail for assault. They also paid the Guard to board him for two more days, in order to give them more time to get out of town.

They gathered their equipment, and left to fulfill their contract. After a little more than one day of traveling, they arrived at the small village that had requested help. They questioned the elder of the village, and he said that the attacks had gotten worse in the time since he had sent the contract.

They set bait along the road, and oil-soaked brush to funnel the rat swarms into a killing zone. When the rats came, Feliks and Aoshi lit the brushfires, and Popo used his whistle to kill great numbers of the rats. It didn’t take long before the rats began to flee. After waiting for a short time, they began tracking the rats back into the forest. They soon came to a cave that was surrounded with thousands of rat tracks. Slowly, they went into the cave. At intervals, small swarms of rats attacked, but they were quickly driven off. Dexter fell into a pit trap at one point that was covered with a light framework of branches and leaves. The rats could cross it, but he could not. It almost seemed that they were luring him into the trap. Feliks took his torch and burned the covering of the pit, and they all descended to the bottom and continued along the cave. As Feliks climbed back out at the end, he found the last of the rats, covering the entire end of the cave. A strangely rat-like creature as tall as a man commanded the swarms to attack, and battle was joined again. The swarms were difficult to resist, and until Aoshi began using calm animal on them, it was hard to even get to the wererat leader. Eventually, Dexter managed to get out of the rat swarms and flanked the wererat with Feliks. It was over quickly, then, as Dexter’s precision hits meshed well with Feliks’s more powerful attacks. As they engaged the wererat in close combat, Dexter noticed that a small moonstone was embedded somehow in the flesh of his throat. When the wererat finally died, the gem exploded, tearing off the wererat’s head and injuring those around him slightly.

The group was disturbed by this strange event, but found a significant pile of goods in the cave that the wererat had captured in his raids, and they happily packaged it all up to sell in Erendar. They returned to the city, informing the village elder along the way that the threat of rats was removed, and received payment for the contract.