Narrator: Robin
Players: Tom (Groger), Mandy (Hippie), Steve (Solomon)
Original Adventure Written by: Chris Pramas, Green Ronin Publishing
Campaign Web Page: http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/constellation
(Note: Hippie has a longer, better name which I forgot to write down.)
Groger, Hippie, and Solomon arrived in Freeport after a long sea voyage, during which the three had become somewhat familiar with each other. Moments after they set foot on the docks, they found themselves menaced by a press gang who thanked them for volunteering to work. (The few city watchmen nearby were hard at work pretending not to notice.) After some deliberate obtuseness over the real meaning of that euphemism (or, in Hippie’s case, maybe not so deliberate), the three finally attacked after being told to hand over their weapons. Sabres, boots, and algal tentacles made short work of the ruffians.
The three were then approached by one Brother Egil of the Temple of Thoth who, having witnessed their fight with the press gang, wanted to hire them to find his missing friend, a temple librarian named Lucius. They agreed to hear him out over drinks at his favorite tavern, the Silver Quill.
Egil had known Lucius for most of his life. Six years ago, he had suddenly changed overnight, acting like a complete stranger. He was expelled from the temple for violating the sanctum, and then left Freeport for four years. He then reappeared, just like his old self, and somehow convinced the high priest, Thuron, to readmit him to the temple. For awhile everything seemed to be back to normal. Then Lucius began looking haggard, and started asking what he had been doing after his initial personality change, as if he hadn’t been there. Two days before the party arrived, Lucius had disappeared.
Accepting Egil’s offer of 10 gold coins now, 40 upon success, the party went with him to look for clues at Lucius’s home. There they found old maps, new but empty shelves, a “to-do” list, and a hidden diary. These documents pointed to a Captain Scarbelly and someone named Milos, who was apparently an associate of the High Priest Thuron. It was getting dark, and Egil had to leave, so he returned to the temple.
They decided to check out the Captain Scarbelly lead first. As Egil had no knowledge of such a person, they canvassed the dock taverns, and quickly learned that Scarbelly was captain of the Bloody Vengeance, a pirate ship full of orcs. Once they knew what they were looking for, it was easy to find the ship because no one else would dock anywhere near it.
After being told to shove off by the guards on the gangway, Groger came up with a scheme to pretend that Scarbelly had impregnated his daughter (played by Hippie, covering her ears) and it was imperative that they “settle things.” This didn’t work either, so Groger kicked one of the guards off the pier and ran up the gangway while Solomon attacked the other.
Charging across the deck to the Captain’s quarters, Groger was met there by the first mate, a huge orc named Aggro who told him that Scarbelly wasn’t here. After trying to get the first mate to talk and finally taking a swing at him, Groger decided that he and his friends would be no match for the battle-scarred orc pirates closing in on him, and surrendered. Aggro took Groger’s coin pouch (fortunately missing the hidden one with the recently-obtained gold in it) and sent him on his way. Clearly in a better mood after having the opportunity to intimidate and rob someone, Aggro said, “Cap’n likes to sample the local fare sometimes. Ask around.”
As they were about to go ask around, Groger and Solomon noticed Hippie going to talk to a pile of garbage, offering it several pieces of food and cooing sweetly at it. She came back and informed them that her furry friends had told her a big orc went alone to windowless building just down the street. They arrived just as one of the employees was going in, a human in the process of putting on fake elf-ears, but decided to wait outside for Captain Scarbelly.
Scarbelly eventually emerged, and after buying him a few drinks at the Rusty Hook, they got him to talk. All he knew was that Lucius had come to him a few years ago wanting to sail with them, observe their behavior, and take notes. He stayed out of the way and he paid handsomely, so Scarbelly allowed it. Then, only a few days ago, Lucius had come back, asking questions about what he had done on the ship, who he had talked to, and so on. That was the last he had seen of the librarian.
The next morning, they went to see Milos and found that he did indeed work at the temple of Thoth as assistant to the high priest. Immediately suspicious of his dismissive attitude about Lucius’s disappearance, Groger decided to spy on him, obtaining a priest’s robe and shuffling about the temple pretending to do odd chores. He did overhear Milos talking to a visitor about “too many questions”, “out of the way”, and “yellow shields”. Re-uniting with his companions, Groger informed them of his discoveries and the group decided that Groger would continue to shadow Milos while the other two guarded Egil, who they assumed was the one to be gotten “out of the way.”
Milos spent most of the day working at the temple, then left to find a farmer’s market, where he bought one live black goat and led it across town to a small building with bricked-up windows. Groger waited a while and followed through a back entrance, finding a hidden door behind some wine-casks in the basement.
Meanwhile, Solomon and Hippie followed somewhat behind Brother Egil on his way home, and he was ambushed in pretty short order by six mercenaries with yellow shields, one of whom was an apparently blind crossbowman on a nearby roof. Egil panicked and ran away, allowing three of the mercenaries to get between the two adventurers and him while two more chased him down the alley. Hippie teleported into their path, however, heroically taking a near-fatal sword blow while Solomon eviscerated the others and then came to help. Egil who, it turned out, knew a bit of magic, was able to heal her after the fight.
Groger explored only a little of the stone passage ahead before going back to retrieve his friends and Brother Egil, who agreed to go along. They first found a sacrificial room where the goat was tied up. Hippie released it before they proceeded. Next they found a treasury full of animated skeletons. Upon seeing the bones come to life, they immediately slammed the door shut again and waited to make sure that they didn’t know how to open doors. Next they found a small library with books like, “Rebirth of the Old Ones” and “The Book of the Unspeakable One.” They took the latter book because it had a lock and was assumed to be valuable, but Groger set fire to the rest of them.
Finally, they found a set of big wooden double doors with light streaming out behind them. Groger put on the gear he had taken from one of the mercenaries and entered, where he found Milos at the altar, flanked by two unsavory-looking attendants with crossbows. Groger claimed to have been sent by “that bald guy” with a message about goat supplies. After some flustered interrogation, Milos shouted, “I’ll have that fool flayed! Now get out!” Groger responded by throwing his shield, clocking Milos on the head, and charging.
After a fairly short fight in which Solomon carved through the guards, Groger ordered Milos to surrender. While Solomon finished off the critically wounded guards because they were “enemies of Jev”, Milos whispered, “he’ll be coming for you, next,” to Groger, but Groger was able to shrug off the magical suggestion and instead head-butted Milos into unconsciousness. As he fell, they noticed that Milos’s shadow had antlers.
Behind the altar they found Lucius tied up. Apparently Milos had sent him on a bogus errand where these guys ambushed him and took him down to this temple. Since then, Milos has been grilling him about his lost time, even torturing him, and becoming increasingly frustrated upon learning that Lucius really didn’t have any of the secrets he was looking for.
The party collected their fee from Egil, then tied up Milos, and turned him over to Thuron at the temple. Then they decided to head back and do something about those skeletons.
...and we left it there for this session, figuring it would be fun way to start the next one (which will be my own creation rather than another pre-fab).
