Episode 10.1

There are times when it seems like a game comes off the rails quite a bit, and this was one of those nights.  There was mystery, murder, bar fights, confusion, and despair.  That may be an exaggeration but there was confusion at a minimum.  Enough happened here that I think I am going to break this into 2 posts.  The reason is that I don't want to overload anyone and so much role playing happened that to go into it all would be overwhelming- I think.  So here is part 1

Episode 10:

The party started off the evening in Owls Roost, the northern most city that is still within the confines of the country of Proveria.  Owls Roost is a merchant city, it’s where a bunch of traveling merchants and nomads set up shop and it stays a large city, mostly made of tents.  I didn’t exactly have a basis for this but I wanted it to have the feeling of 1840’s mining town.  Owls Roost is a city of convenience, it’s right in the middle of some major traffic ways from the dwarven trade cities to the north and the country of Proveria.  It is also the gateway to the one pass that would take them north of the Dwarven Highlands into the Northlands.


The party begins asking questions around town looking for their buddy Durn.  Urz asks "Have you seen a Dwarf with nine fingers anywhere?".  I caught myself right before the guy answered no and paused.  so Urz says "I intimidate the guy".  The lowly merchant tells Urz about a Dwarf in South Town named Draggard is probably who he is looking for.

This is where improv skills can come in handy.  Whenever your instinct as a GM is to say no, try to stop yourself.  The game will be much more fun if you say "Yes, and...".  This was one of those times, it ends up completely changing the adventure that I said yes to his question about the 9 fingered Dwarf.  I also noticed my party had been abusing the intimidate skill recently.  It seemed like the party preferred using that skill over diplomacy.  So on the spot here I made 2 decisions: 1- I was going to make a 9 fingered dwarf who ran things in town, He is the seedy underbelly.  2- If they keep intimidating people they are going to let Draggard know that the money they pay him for protection doesn't seem to be working.

Typhus went to the local constable and found a drunk constable who seemed to be completely disinterested in managing the law in town.  However, he recommended that they look at the bar next door for info, after Typhus intimidated him.

I have a simple rule when I name a tavern: the (adjective) (noun).  it works pretty well.  In this case it was the (fallen) (wheel).  In my world I have essentially made Inquisitors like a separate branch of the government.  So when Typhus rolls in and shows his badge people listen.  Not all inquisitors are on the same level… and to be honest I have not really worked out all the details, but I liked the idea of the roving law man.

After a some more looking around Sam finds that Durn and Kong went north with a merchant group a week ago.  Lina found out that the thieves guild was located in South Town, and Damone found out that the north gate is where records of merchant travel are kept.  All with done with a couple more intimidate checks.

So when all the information is gathered they decide its time to go meet.... Draggard.  So for whatever reason this NPC caught their attention, and I obliged.  They found his tent after intimidating a Madam at the brothel across the street and intimidated the bar tender to get back in and meet Draggard face to face.

At this point I couldn't really have a party of 5th level characters bullying everyone they run into.  So I pulled out a premade 12th level fighter NPC I had and made him Draggard.  They were not going to be able to bully this guy around, he ran the place.

The party now demands information from Draggard on their 2 dwarf friends.  Draggard recommends they go up north and look.  Somehow the party has convinced themselves that Draggard is a slaver and they don't like him.  At this point everyone they intimidated shows up and lets Draggard know these guys have been causing trouble in town.  Draggard say "pay these people for their trouble and we will call it good."  Once again the party says "Fuck off" and Sam enlarges Urz to intimidate Draggard.  Draggard now demands that they pay for his ruined tent as well, since Urz burst through the top of it.  So the party decides it’s time to fight this fool. 

The comical thing to me about this situation is that Draggard was demanding payment of only 100 gp.  Each one of these characters has nearly 1000 gp on them.  And if they hadn’t wrecked his tent he would have taken 50!  All Draggard cares about is making sure that the people in town know he is not weak and that he runs things.  He doesn’t honestly care about the money or the people; he just wants to stay in control.

I won't go in to details, but they barely managed to slip out the back by laying down grease spells and webs spells and having a summoned snow leopard drag Urz's bleeding body out the back of the burning tent.  I think it’s safe to say things didn’t go the way the party planned.

Fleeing from South Owls Roost with an entirely invisible group they head up to the north gate.  Literally exhausted from their run they find out that their friends left a week ago.  Unfortunately their horses are on the other side of town.  Lina stealth’s back there and uses her masterwork disguise kit to dress up as a green (rather than purple) haired male gnome with a large twisted mustache and led the horses up north to meet with the party at a fireless camp as they prepared to head up north, tired, depressed, and wondering what was coming next.

Until next time!
-Ubercroz