After a short hiatus, it's back to blog time! Woo!
We left our adventuring team in a bit of a bind. Shoohey, Tez, and Ethanuel were in the middle of the woods, surrounded by skeletons. Lysimakos was missing in action. Larisse was looking for a bath tub. All great dilemmas as you no doubt agree.
We'll start with Larisse. Having decided that there was no appropriate bath to be found in the inn, she decided to leave for the Marshall's mansion and the promise of a long soak. (You'll be forgiven if the dulcet tunes of porno jazz start playing in your mind.) Deciding that the village folk bar their doors for a reason, Larisse decided the obvious route was to leap out the window nimbly and land with the grace of a cat. She managed one of the two. Leaping nimbly from the landing window, she landed with the grace of a blind, crippled tortoise and sprained both ankles in the process. Dusting herself down, she decided to make her way to the mansion, as a strange music filled the air (think back to Disney's Hocus Pocus starring Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker, you'll know the sort I mean). Larisse, managing to fail her will checks on a repeated basis, suddenly felt her body drawn to the abandoned mill, her fear rising as she saw shambling corpses emerge from the woods to her right. Further and further her legs dragged her, until she was on the doorstep to the mill, a set of winding steps leading down into the utter blackness. At last, her sense of self-preservation (and my botched dice roll) allowed to her to snap free of the chanting's eerie, hypnotic pull and she fled back to the inn and to the safety of her friends. The zombies seemed oblivious to her passing, but then a sharp shriek split the night air before it was cut short. Arriving beneath the open window where she first leapt from the inn, lay the body of the innkeeper's daughter, her limbs bent in awkward angles, her eyes glazed. With a shudder, the corpse began to twitch, the popping of bones and cracking joints sending a wave of revulsion through Larisse. The innkeeper himself appeared at the window, shocked at the sight of his daughter below, dead and taken from him like his late wife. He cried angrily into the night before turning back into the inn.
Annnnnnnd scene.
We cut to the ambushed group in the woods. Skeletons wielding rusted blades and rotted wooden bucklers moved to surround the trio, while Ethanuel was still oblivious to the danger, too busy relieving his bladder. It was only Shoohey's animal growl that alerted both Tez and Ethanuel to the danger. As the skeletons approached, arrows flew into the melee, as undead warriors in the bushes pulled on bowstrings with emaciated fingers. As the trio fought a desperate battle, surrounded by the dead, Lysimakos made his dramatic entrance. Having tailed the undead for the last hour, he made his move, charging headlong into the archers and cutting them asunder before they managed to notch another arrow. With no fire support to keep their foes guard up, the trio of Ethanuel, Tez and Shoohey managed to dispatch their assailants at last.
As they explained the situation to Lys, the decision is made to continue into the forest in the hopes of finding the Town Sheriff, hoping he may shed some light on the situation. Following Shoohey's enhanced animal senses, they at last came to a small clearing, a hut sitting in the centre. Smoke billowed from a squat chimney as the group approached. The Sheriff, Stefan, was waiting there, a stern expression on his face, stroking his goatee, a longsword strapped to his back over a leather long coat. Tez called out, "Ahh, you must be the sheriff! We were looking for you! Greetings, we are heroes, and we are known collectively as Tez's Templars, although that has yet to be finalised." (To date, the group is yet to finalise an adventuring name, a fact I still reason is the problem for their poor dice-rolling). Stefan is a gruff and ill-tempered individual it seemed, as he dismissed the group out of hand saying, "I have two words of advice for you. Get. Out." As the group tried to get a conversation struck up and gather information, it became clear the Sheriff was hiding something. Not wanting to be drawn on the happenings in the village he turned back into his hut saying simply that he had work to do. Thankfully the party, as with all players, are nothing if not persistent.
Tez - "You seem to be entrenched against whatever lurks in this wood, though, Stefan. You don't mind me calling you Stefan, right? Good! You are one man, alone against whatever is out there *puts arm around Stefan's shoulders and uses his free hand to gesture wildly at the woods* But not anymore! You have allies now! We must join forces, and rid the woods of whatever evil befouled them! That fool in town only cares about his own comfort! The villagers cower, afraid to help themselves! It is a time for heroes, Stefan! A time of LEGENDS! You must help us, and together, we will bring the light back to this village!"
Convinced by the sincerity of Tez's words, Stefan invited the group into his cabin, expanding on the village goings-on. He had been the target of several attacks and had setup several waypoints from which to guard the village's perimeter. The attacks of the undead had been regular occurrences long before tales of a witch came up and he seemed convinced that Lady Elena wasn't to blame. There had been an evil here since a plague had swept through the village and claimed the lives of half the citizens there. The only one afflicted who survived was the Marshall and he had been a changed man since then.
While Stefan told his story, Ethanuel/Jory spotted a small medallion hanging on a nail on the wall. Hoping that the Sheriff was distracted, he pocketed the item. In seconds an axe blade whirled through the air, catching the half-elf's sleeve on the wall. Lys was on the immediate defensive, his battleaxe out, while the Sheriff had drawn his own blade.
"Drop it, half-elf," was all Stefan managed to say.
"Relax, Sheriff! I was just taking a look!" stammered Ethanuel, as he reached with his free hand into his pocket. Throwing it back to Stefan, he pulled his arm free from the wall. "What's so special about it?"
Stefan explained the medallion belonged to his wife, passed away in the plague. Since then he'd been grieving for her, and had hoped to rid the area of the evil that remained behind.
Lys began questioning the young sheriff's motives. Over a year had passed since the plague that decimated the village, since rumours of witchery have circled the Lady Elena, and still Stefan was without information of any sort. Who was he protecting?
As things turn heated, Stefan forced the group out into the night again, shouting that there's more going on here than they could possibly know. Tez tried to placate the weary man, while Lys and Ethanuel kept an eye on the area outside the hut.
"Come Stefan, surely this matter is too serious to let a lapse in manners cloud the issue?" said Tez, waving a meaty, scaled hand in the direction of his parting companions.
"You can all go play hero elsewhere, there's nothing you can do here," came the reply, as Stefan slumped in his chair.
"Tell us what we face, and we will leave you alone, if you wish it," said Tez.
"You face evil."Stefan lifted his head, a haunted look in his eyes. "Simply put, it's in the air you breathe, in the soil beneath your feet and in the people you meet in that village. So unless you want to start smiting the ground you're walking on then i suggest you get out now while you can"
"I couldn't stop it when it started, and now it's too far gone, Elena was the only thing keeping it clean!" Stefan made a move to a table on the other side of the room, uncorking the bottle of whiskey sat there.
Shoohey, somewhat hesitantly, stepped back into the small wooden hut. "Well, if you continue to be so uncooperative, you will never stop it for sure."
Stefan gave her a long, hard stare, his filled shot glass halfway to his mouth. With a sad, humourless smile he let his hand drop and slumped back into his chair.
"When did i get so damn angry?" The sheriff let his glass fall to the floor, spilling its contents, and rubbed a calloused hand over his tired eyes. "I'm sorry. I mean no offence. It's just that...that it's been too long now. I've spent too many nights fighting dead men to really believe anything is going to change now."
"Listen up, Stefan! *pokes finger at Stefan's chest* I thought you were different, but you're the same as that fool in town! You say this evil is in the ground? Then we'll smash open the ground until we find it! It's in the air? The sword of justice will reach up and pull it down! You've given up, well sit back and watch! We're real heroes, and we will see this place free and we will bring this evil to justice! You sit here and brood, watch us blaze a trail through destiny!"*turns his back on Stefan* Come, friends! we're obviously not going to get any help here. Let's get back to town and make sure the people are still safe tonight!"
As the party left Stefan, he took his medallion in his hand and stroked it affectionately, muttering something under his breath.
Outside, in the gloom-filled clearing the party resolved to return to the village to check on Larisse (yikes!) and ensure everything is going alright (double yikes!). They begin debating whether Stefan is a good guy now broken, or if he is indeed hiding something or protecting someone.
Just outside the hut, however, Ethanuel saw the sheriff move a rug from beneath his Spartan bed to reveal a hidden door. Descending a set of earthen steps, Stefan disappeared from view, leaving Ethanuel to rush back to his companions to tell them of the discovery.
GM Note: In my short time as Games Master, I have often found that dropping blatantly obvious plot hooks to work. You put in a mysterious set of stairs, a man with questionable motives and a secret, and surely the group is due to investigate due to their curious nature. Surely...
After some quick discussion, it was deemed more appropriate to return the village straight away and investigate in the morning when the group were rested and Larisse was present. While Ethanuel was up for investigating there and then, the rest thought he was in it just for the loot (a player after loot! No!), everyone felt a rest was in order. Besides, if there was to be an attack on the village then they would do more good there than in the creepy basement of a sheriff.
GM Note: Of course an investigation was never to occur after what the group discovered upon returning to the village. To give you all an insight though, here's the conversation where they discuss what may be going on.
[27/08/2009 23:41:18] Rob: The marshall did it. Larisse has been captured, we'll bust in and rescue her/defeat the marshall, and the sheriff will be all "i misjudged you i'm here to help" and then we get lots of gold
[27/08/2009 23:41:50] Andrew: lol - not quite but all will be revealed
[27/08/2009 23:42:06] Rob: Also the sheriff is actually Elena in disguise, she is undercover trying to solve the mystery
[27/08/2009 23:42:08] redmanphill: Ha when we find hundred of corpses in his basement then we shall see who was correct!
[27/08/2009 23:42:31] Andrew: lol
[27/08/2009 23:43:04] Rob: whose basement? The sheriff's or the marshall's?
[27/08/2009 23:43:14] Rob: maybe they're in it together!
[27/08/2009 23:43:30] redmanphill: Maybe it is a tunnel from one basement to the other??
[27/08/2009 23:43:40] redmanphill: That would be confusing
[27/08/2009 23:44:01] Rob: it's totally a tunnel under the sheriff's hut by the way. I bet it leads to his other huts
[27/08/2009 23:44:07] Andrew: I think we're reading a lot into what was originally a very simple story
[27/08/2009 23:44:14] Rob : it's how he's not been captured by baddies yet
[27/08/2009 23:44:33] redmanphill: He is a baddy!! The biggest of them all!
[27/08/2009 23:44:45] jory: :D
[27/08/2009 23:45:01] jory: i bet its a room full of medallions
[27/08/2009 23:45:28] Rob: and a big photo of Ethanuel in the middle, taunting you
[27/08/2009 23:45:07] Rob: Andy, in 3 years time when we're all level 20 and this campaign is epic and amazing, it'll turn out the sheriff was the mastermind behind all evil in the world!
[27/08/2009 23:45:34] Andrew O'Connor: lol - ideas are awesome but what makes you think in 3 years you'll be level 20?
[27/08/2009 23:45:45] jory: lol
[27/08/2009 23:45:48] Andrew O'Connor: it took us 5 weeks to complete one scenario!
[27/08/2009 23:45:50] Rob: yes that may have been over reaching somewhat
No comments:
Post a Comment