Here is a recap of session 3 of my homebrew Ruboryn Campaign. Once again, no pics – sorry – soon I will have pics for you. This was a long session (5 hours!) and had a lot of great role-playing! I spruced up my formatting for this one – hopefully it’s not too hard on the eyes – I may have to change the overall look of my blog to conform to my evolving style…
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Part I: Looking for Selipsy and the Elders
When the party returned to Treemore, they split into two groups, one went to find the informant, Selipsy, and the other on a mission to speak to the Elders.
Efforts to locate Selipsy were met with distrust and rudeness, until Cildain showed Tafedis’ “recipe” (a letter given to the party, complete with wax seal) to the magic shop owner. He was then willing to help the group locate Selipsy. He told them to go and wait in the blind alley behind the shanty tavern, a nameless tavern in the poor district of town. Thorn, wary that it would be purloined if remaining in Cildain’s pocket, took possession of Tafedis’ sealed letter.
In the alley, sounds of a tavern brawl reached the ears of the group and they decided to enter the rowdy tavern. Cildain, while ordering two large tankards of ale and giving a big tip, asked the bartender if he had heard of Selipsy. The area directly around the adventurer was hushed for a brief second and then resumed its wild noise. The bartender shook his head and turned to pour drinks for other patrons. Consequently, he didn’t acknowledge Cildain’s presence again, though he did take the silver that Cildain left on the bar.
Cildain and the others, with the exception of Thorn, swiftly exited the tavern. Thorn witnessed two thugly looking men quickly exit soon after and then followed them to provide backup. The men confronted Cildain on the street with the observation that he hadn’t finished his ale and inquired about whether he though it was “worth the price paid.”
It turned out that Thorn’s assistance wasn’t needed. The danger in the short confrontation ended with mention of a letter from Tafedis and the men agreed to tell Selipsy that he was being sought out. They also promised that Selipsy would find the group if he was curious about the ‘recipe’ and that they no longer needed to look for him.
Meanwhile, Lakatosh and Torrin found an old man in the postal house. They convinced him that they had important information about the kidnappings and that there were survivors from the latest raid. He seemed unmoved, but agreed that they should tell their story to the elders. The old man, while skeptical, told them to return in two hours and that the counsel of elders would meet with them at that time.
As soon as they left the postal house, the door was shut and barred, a closed sign was posted, and a light blue candle was placed in the window and lit. Immediately the common-folk in the city market were whispering and glancing at the two outsiders standing outside the shuttered postal house.
While waiting for the elders to gather, the group shopped in the market. Everyone purchased enough goods to keep them healthy for a long trip and replenished their consumed supplies. Thorn was unsuccessful in bartering the jade gem for an appropriate amount of gold.
Part II: Meeting with the Elders
Research into some local history told the party that the Elders was a group of seven wise ones that act as the government of Treemore. There are four tiers of membership in the counsel: the title of Oldest is open only to those older than 70, the title of Old is open only to those older than 55, the title of Mid is open only to those older than 25. The last position, the Odd, is the tie-breaker position. [these ages are relative to human ages, as Treemore is a human town, and generally only human natives of treemore sit on the counsel]
The Odd is chosen due to impartiality shown in the past and one’s ability to weigh matters of import with appropriate weight; the tie breaker has the most responsibility in times of crisis, and therefore the most stress, but also garners the most favors (bribes) when in times of peace, so usually becomes rich. The tie breaker has no age restriction and there have been tie-breakers as young as 14 (though that was a gifted one, and it hasn’t happened in a long time).
When the group met with the Elders, they were introduced as:
Fyrez the Oldest, a male wearing white robes and a purple sash over his left shoulder and attached at his waist. Fyrez is openly skeptical and distrustful of the party. He also does most of the talking for the counsel and he is obviously respected by the others.
Hannis the Oldest, a female dressed in the same colors as Fyrez the Oldest. Her emotions are less easy to read than Fyrez, and she defers to him most of the time. She does, however, voice her appreciation to the party for bringing news of Lanea and the others.
Rowdan the Old is quiet the entire time, but looks pensive and thoughtful, almost as though he doesn’t entirely agree with the proclamations of Fyrez. His counterpart, Wearra the Old, is also quiet. The two of them wear brown robes with light blue sashes.
Kilorn the Mid, and Ulkoe the Mid wear yellow robes with green sashes. They do not say much, but voice their hearty agreement with Fyrez’s opinions. They want Lanea to be rescued, but agree that they cannot ask for any townsfolk to leave the city on a “death-mission“.
Portane the Odd is a mid-aged male who wears a purple robe with a yellow sash. He is very concerned for Lanea and voices his poor opinion of her family (“they are neither willing nor able to help her“). He quite obviously cares for her and wants to go with the group to rescue her, but knows that he cannot forsake his position as the Odd. [This internal conflict is evident to all of the party members.]
Overall, the party was not well received by the Counsel of Elders. The counsel’s attitude, spearheaded by Fyrez, was distrustful and rude. They asked for proof of the party’s claims and asked to see anything and everything that the party brought back with them from the fortress.
The counsel tells the party that all of those who were kidnapped and escaped to find their way back to Treemore were “different” and caused problems a few days after their return. When asked for a definition of “different“ the counsel described aggressive, dangerous, illogical behaviors that would never be expected of a ‘proper’ citizen. In the end, the counsel agreed to allow the party to return to the fortress and attempt to rescue Lanea and the boys, but did not pledge any support other than a few healing supplies. Fyrez was particularly distasteful and left the members of the party with a wary feeling, to say the least. The party was dismayed by the turn of events and the way the Oldest railroaded the conversation.
At the conclusion of the counsel meeting, the party exited the postal hall and was immediately approached by the two thugs they met earlier. They told the party that Selipsy requested their presence.
Part III: Meeting with Selipsy
Selipsy meets the party in the abandoned alley. He is distrustful of the party, but when he reads the letter from Tafedis, he leads the party to his home. Selipsy’s home was as run down as run down could be. It was what amounted to a wooden shack in the slummiest part of town. The interior also looked very unclean, like a flophouse for all manner of thugs and deviants. When Selipsy entered the room, several well armed men stood at attention, and he dismissed them with instructions that they “never saw this group enter the room.”
Selipsy told the party the following:
1. There is a special Fasthorian gem in the Swimming Sword Tavern that calls the hobgoblins to the tavern by way of some sort of demonic power. He cannot touch it for fear of being killed instantly, but the party can remove it and it will stop the kidnappings if they take it out of the tavern. The gem was placed there by someone on purpose.
2. Another person in town knows of the gem, but has too much power to come forward, and fears that he will be blamed
3. The gem originally came from the mines at Weltusk (a mining town in the mountains to the North, which also happens to be the hometown of Cildain, who is shocked by this revelation).
4. Silepsy expresses that he recognizes Cildain, just as Tafedis did (this was not noted in the last session report, but it occurred then), and states that perhaps he knew his father or grandfather. When pushed about how that could possibly be so, he doesn’t answer.
5. Fyrez is the only member of the Elders that has ever been in a position of power who is not originally from Treemore. He is from Fasthor, but most in the town do not remember this fact, since he is older than most of the people that live here. It is also revealed that most middle aged people were taken in the first raid, 5 years ago.
6. Selipsy tells the party that if they really want to find the kidnapped ones, including Lanea, they should seek out Bukrom in Lethscarat. Lethscarat is a dangerous dungeon found near (or under) Fasthor and is being used to house the prisoners.
7. He tells them to find out what to do with the gem by going North across the Boiled Range and talking to Percy, a shopkeep in Rabin (a small town).
8. Selipsy agrees to steal several horses from the town stables and lead them to the party so that they can travel northward. He says that he will find them when the time comes.
As the party left the house, Narrash the skeptic stayed behind to speak to Selipsy in private for a few minutes.
Part IV: Finding the Gem
Next the party went to the Swimming Sword Tavern and spoke with Taruma and Glafeis (the owner and his daughter), who told them the following:
1. They see travelers from afar all the time in their tavern, and it never occurred to them to suspect that an outlander would plant something to cause the kidnappings.
2. They trust Fyrez with their lives, as he has assured them that they will not be held responsible for the tavern kidnappings, though some in the town want them to be shut down. Fyrez protected them from townspeople bearing torches after the second raid.
3. Running the tavern is their way of life and they would have to move away and found a tavern elsewhere if they couldn’t run their tavern in Treemore.
4. Taruma is especially adamant about this, since her mother started the tavern and it’s the last piece of her mother that she has (her mother was kidnapped in the first incident, 5 years ago).
5. They have sent several groups of adventurers to find the stolen ones, but they never come back. They also seem to have little hope that this group will succeed.
6. They have no idea where a gem might be hidden.
The party commences a search of the Swimming Sword. After a couple of hours of thorough searching inside and out, they find the gem inset into the underside of one of the chairs in the main tavern area. It has been set so deep into the wood that it has to be dug out of the chair with a dagger. When removed, it starts to drip blood. It is a small, relatively flat, round red gem about the size of a quarter and the center of it emits a faint glow. Thorn takes the gem and double wraps it for safe keeping, placing it deep in his pack.
Part V: Departure
The party camped outside of town. Bodoka, intent on destroying the gem, placed it on a large, flat rock and hit it with her thunder hammer. The sound of the hammer hitting the gem caused temporary deafness in the party members closest to the rock. The force of the blow broke the rock in half and caused a bright flash of red light. In the end, the gem was untouched; Thorn wrapped it back up and put it away, shaking his head.
The party then hears an apparently man-made whistle several times. When one of the party members whistled back, three thugs stepped out of the bushes and explained that Selipsy sent them to say he could not get horses. They seem very worried, not for telling the party of the failure, but because of the failure itself. It was obvious they thought Selipsy can do anything! and now they had found something that stopped him, and they were troubled. After two of them start back towards town, the third one, a young boy, asked Cildain if he is from Weltusk. When answered in the affirmative, the boy asks Cildain to deliver a letter there. When the boy leaves, the party opens the letter and finds that it is blank.
Narrash and Thorn crept over to the town stables and found that the Counsel of Elders was there. The counsel heard them coming and quickly exited the scene. Narrash then stumbled upon Selipsy, who tells him that he cannot get horses because the counsel has been tipped off to his plan – “there must be an internal informant – damn!” and that the stables have been trapped. At the suggestion that they should try and get horses anyway, Selipsy tells Narrash that catching them stealing horses with Selipsy is the “perfect way to discredit the party.” Thorn agrees and convinces Narrash to return to the campsite with him. Selipsy promises to still try and get horses and catch up to them.
When they get back and describe what happened, the party agrees to depart immediately. They heard North.
Part VI: Traveling to Weltusk and Beyond
The party takes a few days to get across the Ginuk Plains. They go through several small settlements and hitch rides on merchant caravans when possible. They end up traveling the last leg to Weltusk on foot, as it’s off the merchant path. On the way, Cildain tells them of his past and the events that transpired in Weltusk before he met them.
On the way to Weltusk, the group tries to locate the stick-built home of Cildain’s father, but all they can find is a cleared area with building materials and tools strewn about, as though the house had been dismantled. No sign of his father is evident, but there is also no sign of a struggle or confrontation.
The group arrives to find Weltusk deserted. Like at his father’s house, no-one is around, but it doesn’t look like there was a massacre, it simply looks like they all packed up and traveled North. There is no furniture, the mines are abandoned, and there is a thick layer of dust on everything, everywhere. Cildain goes into one of the mines and determines that it has gone un-used for some time, but it is not dried up, just abandoned.
Just outside of Weltusk, the party was set upon by a group of giant snakes. Three deathrattle vipers and one flamesnake were dispatched with skill. For the first time, all the members of the party worked together tactically to destroy the enemy efficiently and everyone rejoiced in the victory.
A few days travel in the mountains (The Boiled Range) brought the party to a large clearing as they crested a high peak. The sound of great wings flapping brought the reality of the situation to the group quickly. As the white dragon descended upon the group, they separated out and attacked the beast individually so as to avoid the icy breath weapon of the scaly monster. Judging by size, the creature was young, and was also relieved of its life relatively easily (for a dragon).
After defeating the dragon, the party searched for its lair and found the entrance after only a few minutes. It was cold and damp inside the shallow cave, and full of huge piles of bones and animal pelts, mouldy tapestries and splintered wooden shields. Amongst several low quality metal chandeliers, rusty suits of armour, piles of broken swords, crushed helmets, numerous bones, and moth-eaten cloth, they found the following goodies:
A Jade Idol in the shape of a monstrous squid-headed creature, worth approx. 200 GP, 2 potions of healing, 260 GP, 200 SP, a silvery statue of a flying horse with a blue patina, worth approximately 300 GP, 2 gemstones (one blue and one red-orange), worth approximately 250 GP each, perfectly sized to be enchanted and inset into a weapon, a gold ring with small amber gems inset (worth approximately 150 GP for the ring and 100 GP for the gems alone); the ring has a royal seal on it. A bronze goblet with gems inset, worth approximately 70 GP, and a gold statue of a many-armed demon, worth approximately 225 GP, a Hammer of Terror, quickly claimed by Torrin, a Wand of Witchfire, being inspected by Lakatosh, and a Cloak of Chirurgeon (healer’s cloak) claimed by Cildain.
As everyone rests and searches the vast treasure room, Narrash notices that Bodoka and Torrin are gone. A search of the cave, the surrounding area, and the mountainside reveals nothing of the two adventurers.
Thus ends episode 3!
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Once again, Thanks to my players for allowing me to run 4e sessions every chance I get!Until next time, I wish you good gaming.
~DM Samuel
Note: This DnD 4e session was played on 7/10/2009. This story has also been posted on the RPG Geek website as a session report. Stay tuned for episode 4 of the Ruboryn Campaign!