D&D Adventure #4: The Art of the Cudgel

[tandino]

Just popping my head round the door to say how entertaining this is to read. Keep at it you crazy badgers!

[Dog Pants]

Yes, lets keep at it! What's happening?

[Grimmie]

I got a bit distracted in making a .wikia site for 5punky beardy games, I was going to list stuff about Siriath on there because trying to communicate everything I've written through exposition is tricky. However, I'll get something up when I go home. Promise, promise!

[Dog Pants]

No rush Grimmie, honest. Just wondered if we were waiting on something. Looking forward to a wiki so I can look up our potential secret hideouts.

[Grimmie]

I've been beavering away at fleshing out Siriath recently, and by god does it have a lot of bars, pubs and inns.

Elven bar? That'll be the Elegant Staff Saloon in the Elven district. It's a bit posh inside, as most elven places are, but there's a great big gouge through the floor smouldering with a faint blue light.

Word is that a couple of irate wizards from the University of Arcane Studies had a high-powered bar fight a few days ago, one insisted that Illusion was the greatest school of magic, the other insisted Evocation was the finest school. There followed a interaction between a Lightning Bolt and a Major Illusion spell, which resulted in a burst beer cask and a nasty crack in the floor.

Bar patrons fondly recall the sight of a Wizard firing a Lightning Bolt in frustration through a five foot wide hovering bottom.

There's now a sign above the bar that reads "No spells, please".

[Grimmie]

Instead he's going to be poking about the adventurer haunts and the magical curio shops, doing a little detective work and trying to find out if anyone knows what's been going on at the barrows to make the dead rise.

A Gather Information check, please!

Later in the Elf pub Glib will write a copy of the Elven text and ask for a translation from a well disposed regular.

An inebriated Elf slurs back to you..

"To my dearisht Alees- Aleish- Aleisandra, now you can take with you a part of the sea on which we met, alwashe."

[Grimmie]

And here's a little something I've been working on..
http://5punkybeards.wikia.com/wiki/Siriath
http://5punkybeards.wikia.com/wiki/Orhedge

Expect a lot more as I get round for formatting it for the Wiki. Feel free to add your own facts and figures, or write down important information you've gleaned from playing.

[Joose]

Oooh, fancy. 5punkybeards brings horrific mental images though.

[FatherJack]

Feel free to add your own facts and figures

I tried to add a Thor page, but utterly failed at finding a way do that linking it to the DnD PCs category.

[Dog Pants]

Good job that trough is in an elf pub. If it was a dwarf pub they'd find it to be a particularly amusing urinal.

Gather Info is not a strong skill for me. Product of my unnerving mannerisms and uncanny valley face.

Roll(1d20)+2:
2,+2
Total:4

See?

[Grimmie]

Feel free to add your own facts and figures

I tried to add a Thor page, but utterly failed at finding a way do that linking it to the DnD PCs category.

Here you go! http://5punkybeards.wikia.com/wiki/Thor_Yngve

[Grimmie]

Yeah, Forenrond doesn't do a very good job at that. Most put it down to necromancers at the University of Arcane Studies practising their new found spells, and a couple seem interested when they realise which barrows you're referring to, but only for the looting opportunities. Commoners and merchants you encounter are mostly disinterested, and say that the city has enough Clerics to turn away an undead army.

Indeed, making your way around the place you get to see first hand that the city is rich in religious following.

[Dog Pants]

If I ever own a pub it will be called the Wolf and Stein. Genius

[Grimmie]

Okay, okay. Enough frivolities.

The Church of St Cuthbert is almost right in the middle of the city, wedged in between densely packed homes and markets. It's a particularly poor area, but it makes for ripe pickings of the disillusioned and dishonest that the priests love to preach to. The Chapeaux are up early and have already set off in the manure streaked streets to find souls to convert to the faith.

Errol hasn't hung around to see justice done - by morning he's already off with his Paladin initiates in the town's practice fields, showing them how best to wield a mace. Forenrond is woken by the ringing of a bell and the commotion of sleepy Billets rising from their bunks to prepare for the day.

The ceremony is held informally - hardly the big judging of the soul that Errol had made it out to be. A member of the Stars, balding and grey-faced, is accompanied by a young priest, both stand near to one of the stained glass windows and wait for Forenrond to approach. The fresh faced boy unravels a hand-scroll from its rod and mumbles his words.

Forenrond Shankley, you are hereby cleared of your crimes in the eyes of our Saint. May no man judge you for that which you have repented.

The older figure gives a weak smile and retrieves from the inside of his cloak a weighty looking top-heavy club. It's a bronzewood cudgel, the Saint's symbol, and he passes it over. They're cheap and easy to make - even the small church in Orhedge had a few crates of these hidden away in the undercroft. It's a token gesture for your many months working for the church.

Thankyou, Shankley. You're dismissed.

He murmurs, his bushy eyebrows lifting momentarily in something vaguely resembling an emotional response.

You're left alone in the corner as they both go off to perform duties around the church deemed more pressing, dusting the prayer pillows and straightening pews.

[Dog Pants]

Hmm. Well now I have something to sort out the next skeletons I come across.

He hefts it, pleased, and sets off to find the others, cheerily bidding farewell to the billets he passes on the way out.

[Grimmie]

Okay, let's call downtime there

You've all got your Experience, and sadly like Errol mentioned, no gold.

Siriath is a really huge city teeming with activity. There are:

* Universities brimming with students of all shapes, ages and sizes,
* Taverns, magic shops, equipment shops, scroll and potion shops and blacksmiths
* Temples, churches and shrines to various deities
* Showgrounds for brave warriors to duel against one another
* A huge traveller camp outside with its own little micro-economy, complete with circus
* A job board in a prominent location on the city's communal green

You can also consider the contents of the Arms & Equipment Guide (PDF 2.5mb) open for discussion - if you want anything out of there, discuss it with me first.

Have a think about what your characters are going to do now they're here, what you want to buy, and where you want to look for adventure. I'm happy to do this over PMs, Steam, Skype, or even here in the thread if you want your actions to be public. If anybody wants to do something in particular (like Thor for instance, who wants a tame riding bear) then let me know, and I might be able to work up some mini adventure material for that, too.

Here's where I want to take the reigns off the story and let you start steering it yourself, I'll drop a few hooks, a few rumours, and you can decide what looks most interesting.

[Dog Pants]

I'm going to book myself in at a good inn in the human districts, one that I'd always wanted to stay in back when I lived here. They probably won't like me being there, which is even better. I'll pay a week up front.

Assuming we have a parting conversation I'll offer my thanks to the others for helping me with my parole, let them know where I'll be staying, and tell them that I owe them all my services. Should they need my assistance in their endeavours, they know where I am.

Once I'm settled in I'm going to have a scout around the caravan district just to see what's happening. If a week goes by without anything interesting occurring the itchy feet will set in - this lifestyle is slowly eating into my healthy fortune, and if I want to keep up the lifestyle I'll need to find some more crypts and dungeons to loot. So to the jobs board I will go.

[FatherJack]

Thor will visit the circus to see if they have any bears and therefore can give any hints on how to tame them.

[Grimmie]

I'm going to book myself in at a good inn in the human districts, one that I'd always wanted to stay in back when I lived here. They probably won't like me being there, which is even better. I'll pay a week up front.

Normally you'd be heading for The Portly Priest, a happy little inn near the Citadel that's got a great reputation for its cleanliness and polite staff, unfortunately the place has its door boarded up, and an official council scroll nailed to it explaining that food cooked there was the source of some really, really vicious food poisoning. The Crying Harlot is about as good as you're going to get in that case - it's on the border between the Orcish markets and a Human neighbourhood.

The patrons regard you warily, some swanky mixed blood dressed up in adventuring gear slumming it in their bar. The Bartender seems to brighten up as soon as you offer to pay for a week's board in one go. The place isn't too busy during the day, but in the evening it comes alive with revellers. Barmaids wearing humiliatingly lacy, frilly aprons serve tables full of orcs foaming mugs of ale, you think it's uniform rather than a fashion trend. Your room's pretty basic, but it's a huge step up from the shared bunks you're used to at the church - you've got your own space for a whole week for the kingly sum of a gold piece and four silver pieces.

Once I'm settled in I'm going to have a scout around the caravan district just to see what's happening. If a week goes by without anything interesting occurring the itchy feet will set in - this lifestyle is slowly eating into my healthy fortune, and if I want to keep up the lifestyle I'll need to find some more crypts and dungeons to loot. So to the jobs board I will go.

The Caravan District bustles with tradespeople trying to flog their wares, both those from within the city without the money to afford a premesis, and those who have travelled far to take advantage of the wealthy population.

The job board's a octagonal affair with sheets of parchment tacked to it, while you're there you see a few people snagging jobs for themselves by tearing the advert down and pocketing it. It seems that this is the place for anybody - rich, poor, famous or institutional to post up vacancies and opportunities for the city dwellers.

* Party of explorers sought to clean out local dungeon and cave complexes and assist in the cartography project undertaken at the University of Fine Arts. Ask for Surael Elcaan at the front desk.
* Skilled masons needed, The Mason's Guild are looking for extra hands to help repair the structural damage sustained by the northern wall. Five silver swans a day for manual labour, two gold crowns for skilled labour. See the foreman at the construction site.
* Portly Priest to re-open! Now hiring: Bar staff, cooks, waiters, front-of-house, entertainers, musicians and hunters. Contact Phillipe Yeovan, 12 Hunter's Row
* Wanted: Responsible party to aid in student prototyping at the University of Engineering, generous payment with half up-front. Contact Marrot Oilbeard, University of Engineering.
* Adventurers sought to recover stolen family heirloom, contact Tristan Fleetfoot in Traveller's Camp. Look for the Burgandy and Yellow tent.

[Dog Pants]

Well the first and last sound like our sort of business. Depending on what the others do during the week, I ill tear off the top one if they're all likely to come along, and the last one if I think I might have to go it solo (or with a little hired help).