Our first session of our new campaign, set in the Forgotten Realms, was this past weekend. We did a potluck and so got started a bit late and began with character creation so we had a bit of an abbreviated session of play. You can see the cast of characters in the immediately prior post. After character creation, we jumped right in with the seven PCs arriving in Waterdeep on three different ships at the same docks.
For this campaign, I’m asking the players to write the session recaps again. Is it because I’m a lazy GM and don’t want to do them myself? Well, I’d be a little less than truthful if I said that I didn’t like the idea of not having to do the full writeups each week but that’s not the main reason. I want the recaps to be from the players’ perspective and not just mine. That’s the main reason.
So, this week’s recap is from Rachel and starts below the break. My GM comments are in [brackets and italics].
On the 12th of Tarsakh of the Storms, we all arrived in Waterdeep on ships. I (Rory) was leaving a ship with my two new friends Drusilia (Dru) and Sabrina. As we were making our way from the side dock to the main walkway towards the town, a half-orc called out and gestured to me that a boy had picked my picket and was trying to make off with my coin purse. We were able to stop the boy, and fortunately a number of uniformed guards were coming down the docks towards us and manacled the boy when we told them what happened. One of the guards said that in order to get my coins back, we would need to go to the guardhouse/court with them, and that the half-orc (Strik) would need to come as a witness. Strik and a Halfling he had met on their ship in (Bran) accompanied us to the guardhouse, where the guards told us this was the 3rd time this week the boy had been arrested for picking pockets. After completing some paperwork, the boy was arrested and my coin pouch was returned.
Meanwhile, the other uniformed guards who had been coming down the docks were looking for a fugitive they expected to have come in on one of the ships. They said the fugitive was Kaliss, a red-haired priestess of Shar. Adran and Luther, a couple half-elves who were traveling together and have known each other for years, were coming up the docks when a beautiful red-haired woman joined them, introducing herself as Kaitlin, and asked them why folks were being stopped and searched. When a guard checked the three of them, his wand’s sensors went off and the guard said they needed to come with him to the guardhouse. Mysteriously, by the time Adran and Luther made it to the guardhouse with the guard, the guard could not remember why he brought them there, the red-haired woman was gone, and none of the three even remembered there had been a woman with them. Adran and Luther had pretty fuzzy memories of arriving in Waterdeep and coming to the guardhouse.
[Kaitlin also shared with Luther and Adran that Kaliss was her sister and was a not so nice person and priestess of Shar but by the time the trio had gotten to the guards, Luther and Adran had forgotten all of that. In fact, they were in a bit of a fog and couldn’t quite remember what they were doing or where they had been but Kaitlin came to the rescue, introducing herself and then Luther as her husband and Adran as her brother-in-law. But, as Rachel noted in her recap, none of this was remembered by the time Luther and Adran–sans Kaitlin–had reached the guardhouse.
No, no, that wasn’t me just throwing out some possible NPC for some sort of future plot hook or anything like that. Nope, not all. And, even if I was, I’m sure that I’d never just toss out a couple of lines about an NPC…I’m sure Kaliss, er, Kaitlin has already been completed fleshed out and fully written up with pages and pages of history. Yep, I’m sure that’s what I must have done if I tossed out an NPC like this.]
Adran and Luther were being let go around the same time that Strik, Bran, Dru, Sabrina and I were finishing up with the paperwork, and were about to leave the guardhouse when Dru saw a notice on the wall from the Magister of Waterdeep, stating that he was looking for an heir of Caill Dafad within the next couple of weeks, or Dafad’s estate would be forfeited to the city. Adran told us he is the nephew of Dafad, who was his mother’s brother (and a wizard). After asking a couple folks for directions to the magister’s office, we all headed there.
[Wow! That sure was a convenient coincidence, huh? The notice indicated that the heir of Cagair Keep should apply within two weeks of the date of the notice (12th of Tarsakh) but that the provisions of the will also needed to be fulfilled within 30 days. I have a hunch that that little stipulation may have not remained in the forefront of the players’ thoughts.
It was also shared that one of Caill’s favorite sayings was something like, “A polished turd is still a turd…except when it isn’t.” At some point, I also shared a description of Caill, including a rather distinctive scar across his face and that he at least dabbled in arcane magic.
Those two bits of info are largely what Adran could recall about his uncle. He was something of a black sheep and it had been decades since Adran had last seen him.]
We ended up having to bribe the clerk of the magister’s office in order to see the magister. Adran told the magister he is Caill Dafad’s nephew, and the magister said that Adran needs to prove that he is related to Caill. Adran seemed a bit stumped about how to prove this, so we left the magister’s office after giving the clerk a couple more coins to set an appointment for the 14th.
[Bribe is such a harsh term.
Yes, the Magister did indicate that he needed some proof that Adran truly was one of Caill’s heirs and simply stating that his mom was his uncle’s sister wasn’t really going to do it. He was reluctant to share any other information before Adran’s legitimacy as an heir could be established.
I, as GM, then said out of character that this was essentially an opportunity for the players to come up with a clever way of convincing the Magister of the relationship. The idea of getting forged papers of some sort showing proof was discussed but dropped. it was then decided to go and see if they could find out more information about Caill.]
We went to a couple of different inns—one too fancy, where it was clear we were not particularly welcome, and one on the seedier side, to try to find out information about Caill and his keep. We paid a guy at the seedy inn to find out some information and arranged to come back on the evening of the 13th to hear what information the guy had found.
[The questions largely centered on Caill being an arcane spellcaster of some sort and wanting to find a Wizard’s Guild in the hope that the guild would know information about him. After attempts at a few different places, I shared that in Waterdeep, at least in my Waterdeep, there aren’t spellcasting guilds. Wizards tend to be a bit more secretive and protective of their magical secrets than that.]
We ended up heading to a middle-range (not too fancy or seedy) inn called the Maiden’s Tears, where we arranged to spend the night and have some supper. After Strik asked some questions about local magic users, the innkeeper mentioned that his cousin Adian is a wizard, and summoned Adian to the inn. After talking with Strik a bit, and Strik asking about from whom Adian purchased spell components, Adian took Strik to a guy’s place. While a few of the group accompanied them, they were asked to wait outside as only Strik and Adian were allowed to enter. The merchant offered Strik a seat in a magic chair, whose arms held him in place, and whose cushion nibbled at Strik’s butt. The merchant knew of Caill, alternating between not wanting to speak ill of the dead and then saying that he was not a good guy. The merchant said Caill’s keep was a ways out of town, towards Daggerford, along the Trade Way southeast of town. Strik ended up buying a dozen raven’s wings and a map of the area.
[This “guy” had clearly been a bit too affected by his exposure to various magical components and had some focus issues and a definite paranoia. He never did provide his name and Strik did his best to memorize the location of this business relative to the Maiden’s Tears.]
Having decided that we should travel to Caill’s keep in hope of finding some proof of Adran’s relationship to Caill, the next morning we returned to the magister’s office to cancel the appointment on the 14th. Some of our group had hoped that the clerk would allow us to make an appointment when we return based on the coins we had already given the clerk, but it was pretty clear that we would have to offer new bribes for another appointment.
At the seedier inn that evening, the guy we had hired to gather info told us that Caill had saved the life of one of the lords, who had given him a keep as a reward. He said the keep was towards Daggerford, confirming what the merchant had told Strik. The guy made it pretty clear that he did not think much of the lords or those who saved their lives, and strongly suggested that we leave.
[Yeah, being the nephew of a guy who saved the life of one of the authority figures in town did not sit well with the seedier types. Or was it something more than that? Did this guy not like Adran just because his uncle saved a Lord of Waterdeep or might it also be that this seedy innkeeper might have a more specific reason, like perhaps he may have involvement of some sort with whatever attempt that had been made on the Lord’s life…hmmm.
Regardless, the following morning, Adran and Luther (who had shared a room at the Maiden’s Tears) found that their room’s door was slightly ajar and a search of their belongings showed that all of their money was missing. I suppose it could just be a simple coincidence that Adran’s room was robbed. Yeah…right.]
The next morning we headed out toward Daggerford. At the edge of town, we saw two guys fixing a wagon and offered them our services as guards. They said they are heading to Baldur’s Gate, which is past Daggerford, so we told them we would travel with them as far as Daggerford. They said they would pay us 1 copper per 5 miles we traveled with them. [Since a carriage ride between towns is only 3cp per mile (according to the Player’s Handbook) AND the one wagon caravan is heading to Baldur’s Gate and will need to hire new guards at Daggerford, the merchants agreed upon the 1cp per 5 miles for the group to escort them to Daggerford.]
The first three days and two nights of travel were uneventful. The third night, however, Bran was hit by a couple of arrows from different directions during his watch. He yelled out that we were surrounded and the rest of us awakened. We saw and took out one archer, a shoddily dressed hobgoblin, but did not see anyone else. Sabrina checked out the area and saw spots on two other sides of our camp where it looked like someone was sitting or lying down for a while, and there were tracks headed away from the spots.
[The lone hobgoblin that was killed had on armor that was in poor repair, only had a couple of arrows left, and didn’t even have a sword or other weapon. This was deemed very atypical for hobgoblins…one of Sabrina’s favorite enemies is Hobgoblins.
Before the party set off to investigate or hunt down their attackers, we ended the session.
So we got the first session of this new campaign under our belts and, as is often the case, there are a number of potential plot hooks that have been tossed out there.
First, of course, is the issue of Cagair Keep and Adran’s inheritance. Where is Cragair Keep? Apparently, somewhere outside of Daggerford. What sort of proof is necessary to convince the Magister? (I’ll just say that they could have done it with a little effort but it was largely, he was my mom’s brother. How did Caill die? What are the stipulations of the will that were mentioned in the notice? Perhaps they’ll be able to find out some more information in Daggerford…perhaps.
Other than being a relatively attractive woman with red hair, a wanted fugitive, and a priestess of Shar, who is Kaliss? What did she do to Luther and Adran? Not that they remember having ever met her, er, her sister, Kaitlin. Did something happen on the docks?
Why were Adran and Luther robbed? Is Adran somehow the target of a less than savory organization or group of individuals simply because it was stated that he is Caill’s nephew? Just how far might this organization or group go to possibly avenge whatever thwarted effort at killing a Masked Lord of Waterdeep…assuming that this group was even involved in that attempt and aren’t just giving Adran grief on principle.
And what about the hobgoblins that ambushed the party on the road to Daggerford? Why was the lone one killed so poorly equipped? It looks like three of them ambushed a group of nearly ten. Those are some poor odds even for an ambush. Were the hobgoblins that desperate? Were they driven to attack by some other force? Or is something else going on that led to the ambush?
I think that’s pretty much it for possible hooks going forward from this session.
Beer Log: I’m going to use a different rating scale for the beers we try: a hit (a good beer, 3 to 4.5 stars), a miss (a not so good beer, 2 to just under 3 stars), a crit (a great beer, higher than 4.5), and a fumble (a beer that I never really want to drink again, less than two 2 stars). I’m not going to get the order right here but here’s what we tried during the session:
- Stone’s HiFi + LoFi Mixtape: Normally, I’m a bit of a Stone fanboy but I was not a fan of this one. It was a strange mix of flavors and so I have to rank it a Miss.
- Boulevard’s Love Child #5: A Crit! What can I say? I love sour and wild ales!
- Epic Brewing’s Brainless on Peaches: A Hit. Shared by RJ and Bridgett.
- New Glarus Serendipity Happy Accident: This would be a Crit if it was an Improved Critical but is, instead, a very solid Hit! Brought back by RJ from a recent visit to Wisconsin.
- Terrapin’s Maggie’s Blackberry Cobbler: Another one that would be a Crit if it was an Improved Critical. I’ve enjoyed this one each time I’ve tried it…draft or bottle.
