Notes for a New Campaign City, Parsantium

[RichGreen]

Session #4

Hi,

We played our fourth session on Monday - the first part of the adventure featuring the investigation into the murder of Ashna. Here's what happened:

14th Maius
El’em makes a 5gp donation to Brother Jerome’s chapel of Pelor and mission in the slums. Krivinn and Ella visit the witch Jagadamba and buy potions of healing. Ella pays her 5gp for a consultation in which she learns that the evil statue they smashed represented a daeva called Hidimba.

16th Maius
The PCs chat to Mangesh in the Fat Grouper about his leaky boat but their conversation is interrupted when they spot a fisherman pulling the body of a child out of the water. The fisherman takes the body to the Water Boys houseboat; the PCs follow along and soon find out the dead child is Ashna. Ella examines the corpse – she’s been strangled – the mark of the thuggee! They are allowed to look through Ashna’s meagre belongings which include a charcoal sketch of a pelican and a greenstone carving of a hippo which Krivinn buys from Girish. The party also learns that something was troubling Ashna in the days leading up to her death. Girish offers 300 gp in Water Boys loot if the PCs can track down her killer.

Ella and Krivinn go to see Jagadamba again to ask about the thuggee while El’em and Sorgrim the Stiff track down the building near the Black Dolphin’s Wake which has a painting of a pelican on the wall. For a minute Sorgrim thinks they are being watched but the feeling passes. After they scout around the house, El’em heads back to Flotsam to get the other two while Sorgrim stakes out the building.

As El’em, Krivinn and Ella head through a market to find Sorgrim, the PCs are ambushed by a gang of nine thuggee armed with war picks, daggers and strangle cords. Ella is strangled while El’em casts flaming sphere which he uses to attack the thuggee with the unfortunate side effect of setting fire to some of the tents. Krivinn is in the thick of the action as two other thuggee move in to attack Sorgrim. The halfling manages to leap over their heads but falls victim to their coordinated attacks and goes unconscious. Brave Ella kills the leader with her bow, then heads past the burning tents to try and save the rogue. The two thuggee try to finish Sorgrim off, then run away but the halfling survives. The PCs get rid of the others and make themselves scarce before the City Watch arrive.

The PCs break into the pelican building; Ella sets off the pendulum trap but is able to dive out of the way unharmed. Inside the party finds a cryptic note and signs that prisoners have been kept here. A trapdoor leads down into the Hidden Quarter. El’em casts light on a goblet tied to a piece of cord and the PCs head down the slimy stone steps. At the bottom there are two sets of tracks, heading south and north-east. Led by Ella, the PCs follow the southern tracks made by a group of men and a cart. As the party comes round a corner, they run into two dark creepers and their shadowhunter bat allies. El’em attacks with thunderwave, blinding the monsters, but one of the dark ones kills the unlucky Sorgrim. The PCs slay both bats and one ‘creeper; the second one escapes.

Any comments?


Richard

 

[RichGreen]

Session #5

Hi,

Here’s what happened in last night’s game.

16th Maius (contd)
After some discussion, El’em, Ella and Krivinn loot Sorgrim’s body and then return to the surface. At the Fat Grouper, they are reunited with Gong who introduces them to a new acquaintance: a dwarven invoker called Sharden. Talk to Tew Pennyfeather about Ashna and learn about smugglers (“the Gentlemen”) coming in to the Old Docks at night. Tew seems to be holding something back but Gong is able to persuade him to talk: the bugbear pirate Captain Gnash and his ship the Howling Raider were at the docks a few nights ago.

Before returning to the tunnels in the Hidden Quarter, most of the PCs decide to ask around town and try and find out more about what’s going on. Meanwhile, Krivinn decides to go shopping instead, buying a suit of plate armour from Bilal’s Blades before heading off to the Maker’s Ward to get the silver dragon on his shield altered to look like Bahamut.

Ella goes to the Black Dolphin’s Wake and chats to a drunk fisherman called Arktaros, finding out that a big bearded man wearing a turban had been asking questions about Ashna and that the Dockside Crew, based in the Old Fishery, were the main contacts for the smugglers.

El’em and Sharden go to see Brother Jerome in the slums. The genasi grills the priest about criminal activity in the neighbourhood and is disappointed that he doesn’t seem to know much, ending up getting rude and stroppy with them. However, Sharden does a bit better and learns that Orloch, King of the Slums and gnoll leader of the Mangy Curs, is based next door to Brother Jerome’s chapel and soup kitchen. Gong chats to merchants in the Fish Market. Despite mending their scorched stalls (damaged by El’em’s flaming sphere) at cost, he learns little.

Later that evening, the PCs get back together at the Fat Grouper and compare notes. Ella decides to stay up and keep an eye on the docks. She doesn’t see any suspicious ships but does spot a woodpecker-like bird (a nail stealer) pull a shiny nail out of Mangesh’s houseboat before flying back to its nest in the Fat Grouper’s crows nest.


17th Maius
The PCs return to the pelican house and head back down into the tunnels. Sorgrim’s body is gone so at Krivinn’s urging they head down a side tunnel in pursuit of whoever or whatever dragging his corpse away. When they reach a five-way intersection and lose the trail, the party return to the main tunnel and start following the cart tracks again.

Arrive at a door. After several failed attempts to bash it down and pick the lock, Gong eventually manages to kick it in. Krivinn heads inside and is attacked by a gelatinous cube. The others rush in to help, but El’em’s thunderwave unfortunately pushes the cube on top of Krivinn, engulfing him. Gong gets engulfed too and El’em is paralyzed by the ooze’s pseudopods. Eventually the PCs are able to kill the cube and Ella heads up the ladder and through the trapdoor above. She finds herself in a warehouse and under attack by beggars and lowlife scum. The rest of the party come up the ladder to her aid and defeat the ruffians pretty easily. Eight are killed but two are knocked unconscious for questioning.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Ebonyr]

I salute your attention to detail!!!

 

[RichGreen]

I salute your attention to detail!!!

Thanks!

It was a bit of a funny session on Monday night, actually. I'd written up asking around the docks about Ashna's murder as a skill challenge but the PCs all went off in different directions so I ended up running each PC's fact-finding session separately and not bothering with the skill challenge mechanics. To be honest, I think they enjoyed the fight with the gelatinous cube most!

Cheers


Richard

 

[RichGreen]

Session #6

Hi,

Here's what happened in last night's game - contains SPOILERS for Sellswords of Punjar:

17th Maius (contd)

The PCs revive and interrogate their two captives, Barius & Theus, slapping them about a bit when they don’t get the answers they’re looking for. Both are beggars and petty thieves working for Orloch Scragmane – the PCs realise they’ve come up inside the gnoll gang boss’ slum tenement. After tying up the pair, Brave Ella climbs the ladder to the loft above where she sees what appears to be a sleeping gnoll protected by three hooded guards. Looking closer, she realises the “guards” are mannequins, there is something wrong with the floor, and that a man in leather armour is hiding up in the rafters. The man, Black Shet, opens fire on Ella who shoots back. The others rush up the ladder to help their elven companion and Shet is soon despatched. With the fighting over, a little girl emerges from under a furry rug in the bed. This is Bhuvi, an orphan who had been told to hide there by Black Shet. The PCs tie her up too and then toss the room, triggering a hail of darts trap on a coffer full of worthless coins, and finding a trapdoor in the floor. They also find a +1 duelist’s dagger (“Felis”) on Shet’s body.

Ella climbs down through the trapdoor into the cave below, followed by the others. The slave pens in here hold four prisoners: Gong’s master Wang Jin We, and a noblewoman, Lady Patricia, and her handmaidens. Three hobgoblin slavers appear and attack the PCs as Sharden leaps onto the hanging cage above the river. The giant gorilla starts hauling on the windlass, pulling the cage towards him. Sharden tries to cast a spell and loses his grip on the cage, falling into the river. Meanwhile, one of the hobgoblins releases the gorilla who climbs on top of the slave pens and attacks Krivinn who is already in combat with a gorilla. El’em rescues Sharden from the river while the others kill the gorilla and hobgoblins – Ella chases one out of the room and shoots him down. With their enemies dead, the PCs get Wang and the three women out of the cages. Lady Patricia is very grateful at being rescued but is a bit taken aback by the unsympathetic PCs’ unwillingness to take her home. After some discussion, they leave all four prisoners where they are and head through the archway to the north.

Not-so-brave Ella checks out the room straight ahead – a temple with a desiccated human corpse and a portal painted on the wall - but decides it’s too creepy. Instead, Krivinn and Gong go inside and loot the body, taking three scrolls, silver bracers and a fancy clay pipe. Heading west up the stairs, the PCs are nervous about the raised portcullis they can see so Ella stacks the hobgoblin corpses underneath it. However, when El’em and Sharden approach the double doors, the hobgoblins in the room beyond still manage to drop the portcullis between the pair and the rest of the party. The doors open and Orliss the Goat, dragonborn warlord, four hobgoblins and six goblins attack the PCs. Krivinn and Ella lift up the portcullis as El’em casts flaming sphere and Sharden goes unconscious under attack from Orliss. Gong is able to revive the dwarf and the PCs defeat their enemies, although one particularly annoying goblin keeps hitting Krivinn with his bow before he’s brought down. Search the bodies and find a secret panel in the west wall.

------------------------------------------

I need to work out what happens at the slave market downriver where the PCs are likely to confront Orloch Scragmane. Any suggestions on who might be attending the underground slave market? I'm looking for a mixture of evil races and NPCs including kuo-toa, a derro necromancer and others.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Jack7]

Any comments?

Rich, I haven't had a lot of time to comment to many things lately due to my work schedule and other matters. But I like your city design and I like the way your adventures play out in it. As a matter of fact it sounds like something I'd enjoy playing myself because of the diverse plot elements.

And I like the persistent criminal elements and influences that seem to shadow and foreshadow the background.

I need to work out what happens at the slave market downriver where the PCs are likely to confront Orloch Scragmane. Any suggestions on who might be attending the underground slave market? I'm looking for a mixture of evil races and NPCs including kuo-toa, a derro necromancer and others.

Well, I'd have to know exactly what you're shooting for in relation to the larger plot/adventure elements, but I can tell you a little bit about what real slave markets and human trafficking networks are like. They are filled with children, easy to control, manipulate and abuse, women, often starved, beaten and used as primary or secondary sex slaves, and therefore also easy to control, orphans and unprotected people, and people taken in fights or conquest.

Therefore you'd want slaves and victims who are easy to prey upon and control and who would make weak defense against their captors, but also you want people who are very much like "human fences, " that is they fence in people or other creatures in the same way a normal fence might fence in stolen guns. And one thing fences are usually pretty good at is associating themselves with interesting trafficking, and other types of networks, not to mention individual criminals (though they probably don't often overtly run in the same social circles, for obvious security and legal reasons.)

That being the case then you might include some fences, or their agents, who are hanging about the periphery looking for deals. But slave-traders and the fences supplying or operating with them are also going to know secrets. They will be looting and pimping their prospects, meaning they will often discover things "in background."

So if you have plot elements that need to show up, or items that need to appear, tied to the plot, but with no obvious means of exposure you might think about the rings that would operate in such markets, how they tie together, and how to exploit them usefully for purposes of your game. And information is often the most important tool and asset a fence can possess, both to protect himself from the authorizes, and to protect himself from other criminals. So information rings will thrive as well.

Finally, don't forget that the authorities might well place, depending on how your city operates, both informants and undercover operatives in such places to both track criminal activity, like let's say, coin clipping, and to observe trouble-making elements to see if they pose a threat of insurrection, or if any foreign spies are operating in such markets. Historically speaking both general markets and caravan centers, and slave-markets are excellent places for espionage rings to thrive, also for obvious reasons. Many slaves are foreigners, and their dealers and agents naturally congregate in such places, meaning other foreigners can operate there with relative ease and lack of suspicion.

Anywho, good luck.
I like the atmosphere of your adventure(s).

 

[RichGreen]

Well, I'd have to know exactly what you're shooting for in relation to the larger plot/adventure elements, but I can tell you a little bit about what real slave markets and human trafficking networks are like.

Thanks for the kind words and for all these suggestions - really good stuff.

For this bit of the adventure I'm going to use a map from the 3.x FR adventure book Mysteries of the Moonsea which has a Slave Auction map on p.138 that I think will work well for my purposes. It shows a small underground complex, including Delivery Entrance, Processing Room, Holding Cells, Staging Room and Amphitheatre. In my campaign, the delivery entrance will be a dock from the underground river from Orloch's slum tenement HQ (see Sellswords of Punjar) and I'm anticipating a nice big fight in the amphitheatre. Who knows what the players will do though? They might decide to infiltrate the crowd or charge in and attack everyone! I think some of your suggestions about fences, undercover cops etc could fit in here really well.

I've also been thinking about an encounter while the PCs are in their boats heading here but there's a real shortage of low-level aquatic monsters in the 4e MM. I've already used one visejaw crocodile so I'd rather not have another one and I'm leaning towards a young black dragon (4th level). I'm picturing the river bringing the PCs into a vast underground cave, spooky and hung with stalactites which serves as the dragon's lair. Maybe Orloch's slavers pay a tribute to get past? Anyway, the PCs end up having a hopefully memorable dragon fight here before they can get to the dock at the other side and confront the slavers.

Thoughts?

Cheers


Richard

 

[RichGreen]

I'm leaning towards a young black dragon (4th level)

I do really like the idea of introducing a dragon this early. I didn't run Forge of Fury but thought it was cool how there was a black dragon in a 3rd level adventure. And in my adventure, they'll be in boats which is always entertaining!


Richard

 

[Jack7]

It shows a small underground complex, including Delivery Entrance, Processing Room, Holding Cells, Staging Room and Amphitheatre. In my campaign, the delivery entrance will be a dock from the underground river from Orloch's slum tenement HQ (see Sellswords of Punjar) and I'm anticipating a nice big fight in the amphitheatre.

I just really like the idea of a fight in an amphitheatre. And/or a running one through a slave market, narrow areas, etc. then bursting into an amphitheatre.

Also imagine such a fight going on while undercover operatives, fences, and others with vested interests are milling through the place.

I've also been thinking about an encounter while the PCs are in their boats heading here but there's a real shortage of low-level aquatic monsters in the 4e MM.

Maybe use men (NPCs) in another boat who are adversaries (boat fights are dangerous, especially in small craft) and once that fight is underway have both parties ambushed by a single, higher-level aquatic monster. Then both groups have to decide if immediate survival issues don't really make them more cooperative. At least for the moment.

 

[RichGreen]

I just really like the idea of a fight in an amphitheatre. And/or a running one through a slave market, narrow areas, etc. then bursting into an amphitheatre.

Also imagine such a fight going on while undercover operatives, fences, and others with vested interests are milling through the place.

I'm going to make the amphitheatre bigger than it is on the map for just this reason. Some of the dodgy characters at the market will attack the PCs, others will only interfere if attacked themselves. I'm hoping for a nice, chaotic scene here.

Maybe use men (NPCs) in another boat who are adversaries (boat fights are dangerous, especially in small craft) and once that fight is underway have both parties ambushed by a single, higher-level aquatic monster. Then both groups have to decide if immediate survival issues don't really make them more cooperative. At least for the moment.

Good idea, maybe some gnolls belonging to the Mangy Curs.


Richard