Today was the first day of play D&D in over 25 years. It is amazing at how quickly it comes back. My last time playing was with AD&D 1.0 rules so a lot of stuff is new to me. We chose to use the 3.5 rules. We spent the first hour and a half generating our characters. There is a decent web site for generating your V3.5 character: http://www.pathguy.com/cg35lite.htm. We settled on the following players:
Ranger (Elf)
Monk (Human)
Rouge/Cleric (Half-Elven)
All of our characters started at Level IV. We will have additional players in future days, but those people could not attend today.
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Campaign Time: Saturday night until Sunday early morning
Real Time: 5 hours (1.5 hours char development, 2.5 hours of game play)
The story so far: Told from the Point of View of Darkavich, the 4th level Half-Elven
It was a late Saturday night, I awoke with a massive headache in what appears to be a jail cell. I have no memory of what happened or how I got here. As I awake, I notice there are five others in the jail cell with me. One of the other occupants has stood up and is looking around. I notice one other near me is starting to stir. I try to stand up and feel nauseous and my headache gets worse. “what a hangover I must have” I think to myself. I quickly sit back down.
I check myself and notice all my possessions with the exception of my shirt, pants, shoes and hat have been removed. I look up and notice there is a door and three windows. I find this interesting, as many jails I have been in (that’s a long story for another time) have never had more than one window. This room must be meant for something other than a jail.
I am finally able to get up without my head spinning. I look around and see the other three occupents sleeping off their hangovers, one of them is laying in a pile of his own vomit (yeach!), the poor guy. I inch my way over to the door while the other two awake occupants do the same thing. We look out the bars of the door and notice another room. This room appers to have another door with a bolt on the inside. “This is strange” I think, “are they keeping something in or out?” Directly opposite our door we notice our posessions. “Why would our stuff just be sitting there if we were robbed?” I am puzzled as to how we ended up here. Did we get drugged and robbed, then did something happen that got us thrown in this make-shift jail?
I peer through the door but can’t see anyone. I hear a faint snoring and deduce there is a gaurd sleeping outside the door. I try bolt that appears to be holding the door closed and it budges a few inches, but that is all. It must be latched or locked. I look around for something to try and pick it with, but then I hear a banging and someone yelling to open the door. I now see the gaurd walk towards the other door and slide open the peep-hole. Some heated words are exchanged and the guard opens the door. A large soldier enters the room and starts yelling at the gaurd. He smacks him across the face and tells him to go report himself for sleeping on the job and leaving the cell door unlocked. My heart sinks as I realize our cell door was unlocked and if I just reacted sooner I could have been free. Now how am I going to get out of this.
The gaurd leaves and the soldier comes over to our door. I quickly get back on the ground and pretend to be asleep. I hear the soldier snicker and then I hear a pad-lock click shut. I then hear him leave and a loud clang as he bolts and locks the other door. I curse my slow reactions and get up and look at the door. I should be free, but instead I am now locked behind two doors. I looks around for something to pick the lock with. One of the other occupants, he looks like a warrior and a elven kinsman takes an earing off one of the sleeping prisoners. He starts bending the golden loop into a straight piece of metal. He asks “Does anyone know how to pick a lock?”. I step forward and tell him that I do. I grab the metal earing and go to try and pick the lock.
My brain and skills must be still be impacted by the druging because on the first try, I break the earing. “Damn!” I swear to myself. I back away from the door and start looking around for something else to use. I hear some noise outside one of the windows, so does my kinsman. We look at each other and head over to the window. We can’t see what is going on, but we can hear a scuffle. After a short period we hear the outside door open, I go look out the door and see a large person dressed very stealthfully start wandering over to our door. I back away from the door as he unlocks it. He tells us to hurry and come out.
We leave the cell and go to grab our stuff. We re-fit ourselves with our stuff. I notice my other two companions better now. One of them is a Human that appears to be a Monk of some order. The other is clearly a pure elven warrior, perhaps a ranger? We notice that all of our coins are missing (with the exception of about 60 copper pieces which I pocket) but everything else appears to be in order. Just as we are about to turn away to leave, the ranger notices something strange about the floor. He gets on his hands and knees and finds a floorboard that appears to be loose and is concealing something. He seems unable to move it. I pull out my dagger as he steps aside. It takes two attemps, but I am finally able to lift the board.
Under the board we find two sacks. I lift them both out. One of them is quite heavy while the other one is light. I open the heavier bag and it appears to contain a bunch of coins. There are ensignias of multiple realms. This leads me to believe that it’s loot from many people travleing through this town. I had the bag to the Monk. The Ranger opens the lighter bang and finds it full of jewlery. I take the bag from him and toss it into my backpack. The stranger tells me to hurry. He uses my name and I ask if I know him. He says “Yes, but lets get out of here and I will explain”.
We all turn to follow him out the door. I notice he has a large sword strapped to his back and two smaller weapons at his side. This person is definately a fighter. I also notice how large he. When we leave the building he points in the direction of the woods and says “go and don’t stop until we are clear”. We all start running towards the woods. I notice that as the fighter runs he lumbers and clangs. He must definately be wearing some decent armor under that cloak. I chance a glance back and do not see anyone chasing us.
We reached the woods and find a spot that we can defend ourselves if we need to and sit and rest. I open my bag of jewelery while the Monk opens the bag of coins. We also introduce ourselves. The following people in our party are:
Icarus, who is a Male Human Monk
Hallack, who is a Male Elf Ranger
Not-Rick, who is a Make Fighter (NPC)
We count up the contents and discover the following:
1 gold
140 silver
46 copper
10 rings with gems in them
2 regal wealthy looking rings
7 generic bands (of gold)
3 gold hoop earings
While we sit counting, Not-Rick tells us about what happens. He says we were all sitting drinking at the tavern when he noticed us getting wozie after just a single drink. He determined we had been drugged. “I high-tailed it out of there with the Mage in front of me. He seemed to disappear when I was outside. I waited until nightfall and was able to come back to get you out. I do not know what happened to the Mage.”
Just as he said this, I heard a noise in the woods that sounded like a twig snapping. I immediately turn to circle around to the source of the sound. Hallack readies his bow with the skill and speed of a trained Elvish warrior. I ready my crossbow and move around to the location that he is pointing his arrow at. Just as we are about to close in on the location of the sound we hear: “You don’t need to shoot me.” and a person appears out of nowhere right in front of us! I think to myself, “Cool cloak of invisibility. I would kill to have one of those.” The mage’s name is Zxin another NPC.
We return to our hiding spot and determine what to do. It quickly becomes clear to us we have to return to the town. We need to find out who drugged us and what is going on. Not-Rick wants to whomp someone in return for trying to drug him. After some debate and planning we decide to go get the tavern keeper.
Zxin and myself will scout around the town, while Not-Rick, Icarus and Hallack go after the tavern keeper. We set out just as dawn is rising. We notice a stable and wander over there. While snooping around a stable hand eyes us funny and ask “What can I do for you sir?” I ask him, “I was wondering if there was a place to rent horses?”. He tells me that “Only horses here are for the guests of the tavern.” I thank him for his time and move along. Zxin whispers to me, from under his invisibility cloak, “what an idiot.” I chuckle as we wander over to the back of the tavern.
I enter the back of the tavern just after I notice the others enter the front. I find myself in the kitchen with a very interesting looking woman who appears to be the cook. She sees my crossbow ready at my side and says: “Hey, if you have a problem with the food I wasn’t the cook last night and if you have a problem with the drinks you can take it up with the owner in about 5 hours when he wakes up.” I tell here “We don’t have a problem with the food, but the drinks we have come back to complain about and we will not wait 5 hours for our conversation.” I ask her where the tavern keep is. She says “Up the stairs, 1st door on the right” then mutters “I didn’t have anything to do with what he did to you, I told him not to.” I peer out the kitchen door and tell Icarus 1st door on the left and return to the kitchen where I ask the cook what she know about what happened last night.
She tells me that “a new military commander is in town and since then he has been forcing us to drug people so he could steal their stufff. We are too afraid to stand up him, but that jerk of an boss doesn’t resist, and I belive he enjoys it.” I calmly explain we are here to put an end to it and if she plays her cards right, she may end up the owner of the inn and tavern. I motion to Zxin, who is still cloaked to go out and provide backup to the others. He brushes passed me so I know he understands and I turn back to the cook who has a bewildered look on her face and seems to think I am crazy talking and motioning to the empty air.
Just as I turn back to the cook, I hear a loud crash! It sounds like some just kicked in a door and shattered it. I turn to the cook and say “Game On!” and I rush out and up the stairs. I noticed a gaurd, who I learn is named Deke knocked out in the corner and a shatered doorway to the first room on the left. I notice Hallack standing in the doorway and Zxin, uncloaked, next to him. Icarus is also in the hallway. I creep up to the door way and hear the owner yell out “The guys I work for will be here in a minute and your all in big trouble.” I notice the fool has taken refuge between his bed and a wall and is pointing a crossbow at us. “What an idiot”, I think to myself. That bedroll is not going to protect you if I wanted to kill you. I make eye contact with him and tell him, “I have one of those too. If you shoot me I know how long it will take you to reload. By then you will be dead.” I then motion to Zxin to cloak up and get his butt in the room and put this guy down.
Zxin, enters the room cloaked now that Hallack has backed away from the open doorway. Quickly we hear the “sleep” spell cast and a thud as the keeper collapses to the floor. I sigh, as now we have to wait until he wakes up to question him. We gather up the poor guy and carry him downstairs.
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Well our realtime is up and this is as far as we have goten in the campaign. Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of Darkavich the Half-Elf.
