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zenlunatic
Acolyte
USA
12 Posts |
 Posted - 30 Jan 2005 : 02:42:05
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greetings all, thank you for your help and suggestions, I find this site to be the most resourceful I've come across on the net. with that being said, I would like to return the favor by giving a somewhat hap hazard account of my first two gaming sessions...
the game starts late in the month of Tasarkh, with Greengrass fast approaching.
four second level heroes arrive in the Dragon's Jaw Inn, most renowned establishment in Suzail. among them is a paladin of Tyr, a most repulsive looking cleric of Gond, a monk fresh from his monastery, and a rogue/sorcerer with a secret. after some “how do you do’s” and what not the four start casing the town together to figure out why serendipity brought them together. they learn of House Blacksilver’s annual masquerade ball on Greengrass Eve. figuring this is the place to be on such a night, they work on separate ways to attend. the paladin hires himself as bodyguard to a noble lady, cleric and monk finagle their way as conversation pieces with another noble, and the rogue/sorcerer arrives with a gaggle of sembian merchants. strolling about the party and eavesdropping where possible the players learn of much of the nobles’ varying degrees of support for the steel regent. there is a nervous tension in the air, and several nobles seems to be keen on what is going to happen. suddenly seven drow arrive on the back patio scene with smoke screens and arrows. using the cover of darkness the lead drow slips into the inner great hall and assassinates Lady Blacksilver with a potent magic poison. the heroes manage to kill four of the underlings, force the other two to flee, and narrowly miss catching the lead assassin. for saving many lives and valiantly defending the nobles and their guests, the four heroes are regarded as such. the next day, Greengrass, word spreads fast and the four are treated to many drinks and cheers and what have you. the following day the steel regent summons the four to the royal court where they are awarded with honorary defenders of the realm status, and given free leave to carry arms within the borders without question. they receive tokens of the princess’s esteem, and are further lavished with noble favor, to a saturating degree. a few days later, the trigger happy band asks the regent how they can assist the realm and she assigns them mundane caravan detail for transporting some royal amethyst to Arabel. the trip there had a random encounter with some orcs, netting the paladin an enchanted longsword, and on the return flight a wyvern who was hesitantly fought, and surprisingly defeated. (I expected them to run!) they all level.
the second session begins as the heroes return to Suzail from their caravan detail, there is a fifth player who needs to get worked in now too, he decides to play an aristocrat/bard, since it will fit right into the current course of the game. yet he and two of the other players eat some psychedelic mushrooms, figuring a low dose will just make them a little high. after a misjudging of the potency of the fungus, gaming becomes low on the list of priorities when compared to deciphering the meaning of life. in any case, most of the players keep their cool and gaming goes on, albeit with a little more ridiculousness.
the four heroes talk to the steel regent and are told to keep their heads low, some of the more difficult nobles are making it known that they are not too pleased with these upstarts. a man seeming to be a war wizard approaches the four as they leave the royal grounds and are asked to deposit an enchanted coin into the purse of Lord Cormaeril, but being mindful not to touch it for the curse will take hold of them if they do. the players readily agree to this since he was seen as being somewhat aware of the attack on the Greengrass festivities. they debate how to accomplish this task and figure that going with strait forward questions of the night’s events will suit them best, the gloved rogue will flip the coin and “drop” it at an opportune moment where Cormaeril will no doubt pick it up and fall victim to its magic. they are greeted at the ground of House Cormaeril by private guards who escort the four into the back where Lord Cormaeril is attending his gardens and hedge maze. the coin is flipped and Cormaeril takes it, then leads them into the hedge maze in insisting on having lunch at the gazebo in the center. he quickly uses a teleportation ring and the hedge maze changes wildly, growing thick with damaging vines and trapping them with a slowly advancing back wall. after a pit trap, a spear trap, and a boulder trap, the party finally arrives at the center gazebo where they meet that damn drow that escaped! they follow him into the catacombs where he escapes through a portal and they party have to fight off swarms of tiny spiders and one that is decidedly larger. after exiting the catacombs the party is arrested for “trespassing and desecrating a most noble place of burial” the heroes (and players!) are furious. the trial quickly happens and they are stripped of rank and title, but found not guilty since the use of spells can find fault with neither party. returning to their inn defeated, they start to scheme again, the paladin calls up his now girlfriend noble and his staunch ally in the first drow fight and starts to incur some of their favor. their weapons and armor are secreted to them in the night, as well as their titles when the steel regent princess shows up in disguise. the bard (coming down from the mushrooms now) shows up at the inn and writes a ballad about the nasty noble Cormaeril, the party instantly likes him and asks him to help them plot some revenge. after some reconnoitering, the party realizes Cormaeril intends to assassinate them tonight, and so they set up some defenses in their room. the drow attack and are dispatched quite handily by the party who caught them in a stunning light show courtesy of two bullseye lanterns. the “main” adversary is also one of those killed, but as he dies, a magic disguise falls from his face, further angering the paladin who really has a bone to pick with this guy. the bard teaches the song to bards all over the city and the party has several hundred copies of the song printed and flyered around town. several drow bodies are deposited at the gate of house Cormaeril and the docks where his business empire is located. for the first time in centuries, outright lawlessness breaks out in the streets of Suzail as commoners are rioting and openly talking of lynching nobles. the steel regent politely “asks” the party to take a month off in a royal hunting lodge in the King’s Forest. the party agrees and retires there, only to be attacked by a juvenile green dragon, who they defeat with the help of some on site rangers, and the smart thinking of the rogue/sorcerer who purchased himself a wand of cure wounds.
the next session is tomorrow, and it’s looking to be a hell of a game. it’s moving a little faster than I expected, but the players are really gung ho about cutting the bullshit I see in most games and just moving it along. please excuse the frantic pace and longwinded nature of all of this, as I have been downing coffee all day preparing tomorrow’s adventure. please, comments, criticisms, questions? suggestions? I want it all.
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zenlunatic
Acolyte
USA
12 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jan 2005 : 03:27:26
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| an oversight in my account: the magic in the maze, the nobles lying, and what not was covered up by a powerful new sixth level spell that has been created by one of the scheming nobles' drow allies who has yet to appear on the scene. |
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Kentinal
Great Reader
4693 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jan 2005 : 03:36:51
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| Sounds like you ae having fun, only comment I have right now is look to alignment of the Paladin. Agreeing to be a part of giving a cursed coin does not strike me as being lawful or good. |
Edited by - Kentinal on 30 Jan 2005 03:38:45 |
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zenlunatic
Acolyte
USA
12 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jan 2005 : 03:54:35
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quote:
Originally posted by Kentinal
Sounds like you ae having fun, only comment I have right now is look to alignment of the Paladin. Agreeing to be a part of giving a cursed coin does not strike me as being lawful or good.
giving a cursed coin to an enemy of the crown? as requested by those your sworn to defend? |
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Kentinal
Great Reader
4693 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jan 2005 : 04:07:10
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quote:
Originally posted by zenlunatic
quote:
Originally posted by Kentinal
Sounds like you ae having fun, only comment I have right now is look to alignment of the Paladin. Agreeing to be a part of giving a cursed coin does not strike me as being lawful or good.
giving a cursed coin to an enemy of the crown? as requested by those your sworn to defend?
A Paladin is held to higher standards, often. Kill a foe of the realm, arrest a foe of the realm, these are things a Paladin generally does. A Paladin does not use poison, I suspect is not permetted to curse anyone via spell list. *checks that* Nope does not appear a Paladin can even cast Geas, Lesser (which is a type of curse).
It is your game, so you certainly get to apply your interpertation of what actions are not Lawful Good. My reaction is the action, if not calling for alignment adjustment, certainly should be a black mark depending on future actions. |
Edited by - Kentinal on 30 Jan 2005 04:10:13 |
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zenlunatic
Acolyte
USA
12 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jan 2005 : 04:20:25
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upon rechecking my notes, the paladin did raise objection to the idea, so was then excluded from the rest of the party's scheming about it.
I can see your point. I myself am not what would be considered lawful so I always rationalize things like this. the player however did not, and is actually quite the roleplayer for his first gaming group. |
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Kentinal
Great Reader
4693 Posts |
Posted - 30 Jan 2005 : 04:44:44
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quote:
Originally posted by zenlunatic
upon rechecking my notes, the paladin did raise objection to the idea, so was then excluded from the rest of the party's scheming about it.
I can see your point. I myself am not what would be considered lawful so I always rationalize things like this. the player however did not, and is actually quite the roleplayer for his first gaming group.
This is good to hear that you have a good rolepleyer. I revise my advice to look at Paladin alignment. He certainly would not have been expected to warn the evil target. Though he might be inclined to try to get other members of the party to fight fair. |
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore
5056 Posts |
Posted - 06 Feb 2005 : 16:09:22
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Sounds like great fun, and I’d say you’re running Alusair ‘right in character.’ Bravo. I don’t feel comfortable suggesting precisely what should befall in your next play session, but speaking as a player whose characters have adventured extensively in Cormyr with Ed Greenwood as the DM, here are some of the elements that should feature in upcoming play:
1. Immediately, the War Wizards should continuously spy on the PCs (two watchers: one on the PCs, and one on the first spy to make sure no one ‘offs’ him). Not to rescue them or intervene in any way, JUST watch. This means that Caladnei and Laspeera will know PC activities precisely, from now on, and will judge (and re-judge) them accordingly.
2. Laspeera will take her concerns about the PCs and the Cormaeril situation to Caladnei and Filfaeril, and the results will be thus: a Highknight will be asked to arrange a private ‘loyalty test’ for the PCs, as subtle as possible to make them unaware that they’re being tested (to make sure they aren’t under a lingering drow influence, or are starting to get ideas of their own); the PC connection to that “noble girlfriend” is going to get VERY closely watched; and the PCs will be approached by Alusair with a specific upcountry mission or two (root out a traitor somewhere in the tax offices in Arabel, who’s helping someone smuggle goods in and out without taxes being paid, the incoming goods recently starting to include poisons and weapons [note that Alusair already knows who the traitor is, and which noble house the poisons and weapons are going to; this is a combined test and “keep them busy and well away from Suzail” act on her part]).
3. Some nobles will start to think the PCs, as “marked, tainted goods,” will be perfect weapons to use to settle old scores with other, rival noble houses. Not hired to do so, but manipulated into attacking (spells used to temporarily put apparent drow faces on the visages of those rival nobles, in hopes PCs will attack, and so on). Almost anything the PCs do will get them caught up in long-running noble feuds and grudges. Alusair will then have to weigh telling the PCs to get lost for good, sending them to the Stonelands for a good long time, or helping keep them alive as she ‘turns them around’ to be a blade against various nobles, encouraging them to wade deeply into noble intrigues and treasonous plots and grudge-matches so they can uncover as much information as possible and ‘blunt the ambitions and enthusiasms of the sharpest noble blades who wish us ill.’
4. You as DM should start to give every PC side-interests and entanglements based on their classes and faiths, to give them something to be ‘torn between’ when they want to rush off into the next adventure.
5. Sembians who want to weaken the government of Cormyr will start to covertly approach the PCs, through various agents (mainly travelling merchants), to undertake little missions that will help foment unrest and mistrust of government officials. These will be paid missions, and will start as very subtle: root out this ‘dishonest’ official, expose that shady practise, and so on: things the PCs shouldn’t see as disloyal to Cormyr.
In other words, set all of these balls rolling, and then pick up and use them depending on your players’ enjoyment and the direction their play goes. Good luck, and keep telling us what happens!
THO
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The Hooded One
Lady Herald of Realmslore
5056 Posts |
Posted - 06 Feb 2005 : 16:17:24
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A postscript: don’t forget to tempt the PCs with treasure, both useful magic like healing potions, and good old coins. Nobles can use these as lures, of course, and tales of treasure are your lures to the PCs to occasionally dip down into a “dungeon.”
Also, it’s time to do the TV sitcom thing: start to introduce a stable of colourful, interesting NPCs the PCs can go to ask things, buy and sell things, seek advice from, try to get refuge (hiding place) from when they need it, and so on. These memorable NPCs will probably become the backbone of your campaign.
THO
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Cormyr campaign thus far...
