Our first session of our new Forgotten Realms campaign found the PCs coming together for various reasons and learning that one of them, Adran, had a potential opportunity to inherit his uncle’s holdings…an uncle, Caill Dafad, he hadn’t seen since his childhood. All Adran had to do was provide some proof of his relationship to Caill. Unable to think of some sort of proof and finding little such evidence in Waterdeep, they party had set off for Daggerford as they had learned that Caill’s holdings, Cagair Keep to be exact, lay somewhere in the vicinity of that town. We ended the session after the party and the merchants that they were accompanying had been ambushed by some pitiful hobgoblins.
This session’s recap is from Todd and starts below the break. My GM comments are in [brackets and italics]. Some might recognize the idea of a PC inheriting a keep from an uncle as this is all inspired by the old Dungeon magazine adventure, “The Inheritance,” in issue #26. Many (if not most) of the details aren’t quite as written in that adventure but I have shamelessly appropriated the concept of the adventure.
Our priority was to get to Daggerford, so we doubled the guard and agree to continue to escort the wagon to Daggerford [rather than pursuing the hobgoblins that had fled]. After some short jokes and promises to bring some down to halfling size, we set off.
Later that day, we arrive at Daggerford. We collect our pay. We ask the gate guard some questions about Cagair Keep. He recommends that we go to the guild hall [as the questions had centered on the idea of finding some sort of written record], and points us in that direction.
AS we make our way thru Daggerford, the sounds of merchants catches Drusilla’s ears. Before we know it, she has the makings for a nice picnic.
Luther and Adran have a short conversation with the guild clerk. He gives them the general direction of Cagair Keep. The clerk knows of Caill Dafad. Caill did business with Bess Miller, owner of Miller’s Dry Goods.
Bess tells us that Caill did buy supplies from her. She would see him a few times a year. She tells us his wife is Westra Helder. Bess did not know that Caill was dead. She is able to provide us with better directions to the Keep, and also directions to Caill’s wife’s family farm. Bess suggests that we go see her sister, Sherlyn, the captain of the guard.
On our way to the constable, a Bran Brightwood recommended that we should stay at the Silver Flood Inn. And to tell them that he sent us. [Bran didn’t approach the party, they stopped him to ask for directions as they didn’t know the street names in town and it was by street name that Bess had directed them.]
At the constable’s office, we learn that Sherlyn is not there at the moment. One of the men leaves to go find her. While we wait, we are questioned by some of the town’s guard. The line of questioning seemed more like an interrogation [and like authority figures just throwing their weight around with the strangers in town]. We waited a while, but she finally returned.
Sherlyn tells us what she knows. She did not know that Caill is dead. Westra’s mother was not happy with her daughter marrying Caill. A large dowery was involved [which had pleased Westra’s father]. We speculate as to the cause of Caill’s death. Sherlyn want to know of any potential danger from Cagair Keep towards Daggerford.
We set out, walking upriver, for the Keep. Before long, it starts to rain heavily. About 5 miles away from Daggerford, Dru and Sabrina here a scream. Rory sees a light thru the rain. The light turns out to be a light from a cabin.
Dru sneaks up to to a window. The first thing she notices is a man on top of a woman, it appears to be that he is raping her [it was pretty obvious that that was what was going on]. She sees half a dozen men standing around the cabin, watching the rape take place. There are a couple of bodies on the floor.
Dru comes back to us, telling what she saw. Sabrina moves to the window, everybody else heads for the door. I get to the door, and barge in. We waste no time closing in for the attack. The human man cuts the woman’s throat as he stands to face us. He commands his half-orc men to kill us. We beat them without too much difficulty.
We bury the bodies of the family and dump the bandits bodies out [in some woods] away from the cabin. After cleaning up the cabin a bit, we rest for the night [inside it].
In the morning, we continue up the river to find Cagair Keep.
Dru and Sabrina hear a noise, the cry of a wounded animal. We continue up the trail. We come upon a group of men, dressed in black uniforms with a talon [a single golden talon of a hawk or similar on their tabards]. They are torturing a young owlbear. Sabrina is adamant about helping the creature. Most of us want to go around and just continue on to Cagair Keep. After a bit of discussion, Ardan decides he wants to help. [Although Sabrina did concede and indicated that she’d continue on without interfering as well…before any action was taken.]
We are hiding in the bushes. Ardan casts sleep on the soldiers, a handful of them slump to the ground. It is enough for the owlbear to escape briefly. As it mauls one of its antagonists, the remaining soldiers attack it and kill it.
One of the soldiers spots Ardan and calls for him to come out into the clearing. Ardan tries to hide, but its too late and he finally steps out into the clearing. As Ardan is questioned, it is becoming apparent that he is telling too much. Strik comes to the rescue. Strik also steps out into the clearing and takes control of the conversation. The soldier demands to know who Ardan and Strik are. Strik asks under what authority does he demand. The soldier says he is acting under the authority of Lady Hawke and Hawke’s Roost, who don’t answer to Daggerford or Waterdeep.
Tempers rise. Luther, also, steps into the clearing. A fight ensues, and we defeat the soldiers. We dispatch (murder?) the sleeping soldiers.
[The “leader” of the soldiers indicated that the PCs would have to accompany them back to Hawk’s Roost as they were trespassing upon the Lady’s lands. Although the PCs knew that Hawk’s Roost and Lady Hawke did not “answer” to Daggerford or Waterdeep, they didn’t really know anything else. These “men” could have actually been the true lawful authority in the area…but that did seem doubtful given how they were behaving and what little the PCs knew of the area (i.e., that Cagair Keep was the only keep in this general area and there weren’t any settlements around this area…although I think a lot of that was forgotten until a reminder occurred a bit later in the session).
Todd’s asking of “murder?” is a legitimate question. Four of the guards had magically been put to sleep. Each of them had their throats slit while sleeping by the PCs even though no one knew for sure if these men did have a right to claim authority in this area or not. If it turns out that they were, in fact, guards of a lawful authority, the PCs are going to be in a whole lot of trouble if this comes to light. It is also pushing the boundary of the “theme” for this campaign, mercenaries with a golden heart (and golden heart doesn’t mean wanting gold) and will verge into a more murder-hobo theme if this becomes a common behavior.]
We setup a ruse to throw suspicion off of us. We take some of the uniforms and plant them on the bandits at the cabin, hoping that it will look like the rape group fought and killed the soldiers, and then someone killed the bandits. We hope. [They also put the coin that was found on all of the uniformed men on the bodies of the bandits.]
Back on the trail upriver, we circumvent the clearing. Eventually, the trail turns away from the river. Through the trees, we can see a keep sitting on a hill. The keep is flying black banners with a single talon, Hawke’s Roost. Hawke’s Roost where Cagair Keep should be.
There is concern that we could be in a bit of a predicament. We lay out our options, the main ones being to try to continue up to the keep and talk our way in, find some proof of Ardan being related Caill, or turning back to Daggerford and let the constable know of the potential threat. We choose the latter.
Traveling back down the trail towards Daggerford, we come across the trail of something large that had crashed through the woods onto the trail. There is evidence of blood and a human leg, the trail heads to the clearing that we had avoided the second time. We avoid the clearing again. [The trail of the something large met the path that the PCs were using and looked like the thing had then headed down this same trail to the clearing where the owlbear cub and uniformed men had been encountered. The PCs had bypassed this section of the trail previously when they had headed up to the keep. They decided to bypass this section again and the clearing as well.]
Time of the essence, we travel through the night. We are exhausted by the time we reach the gate of Daggerford, in the wee hours of the morning. We talk to the constable, telling her what we know. As we are going to go back to Waterdeep, later that day we are given a sealed letter from the Duke of Daggerford to take with us.
[The PCs spoke with Sherlen that morning. They asked if she might be sending a message to Waterdeep, hoping that they could find a quicker way to get back to the Jewel of the North as a result. Sherlen explained that she would be speaking with the Duke later that day and would explain things to him. Sherlen also explained that the sort of frontier law that the PCs had exhibited in killing the men at the cabin and clearing was NOT something that would be tolerated in Daggerford or its lands. She also seemed to know of the identity of the family that had been slain at the cabin. The PCs headed back to the Silver Flood Inn and caught up on some sleep with a plan to head back to Waterdeep the following morning. The sealed letter was provided to the PCs to take to Waterdeep on behalf of the Duke as they were going that way.
We pretty much ended the session with the following morning before the PCs set off for Waterdeep. I believe their plan for the next session was to get to Waterdeep and speak with Magister Seedius again in the hopes that they could either enlist the aid of Waterdeep or be enlisted to aid Waterdeep in clearing Cagair Keep of whoever currently inhabited it and, in the process, find some proof at the keep of Adran’s relationship to Caill.
In game time, this campaign started on the 12th of Tasakh and when we ended this session it was the early morning of the 20th. The notice about heirs and claims was also dated the 12th and stipulated that any claims be filed within two weeks of that date. So they have until the 12th of Mirtul so not quite half of the time has already elapsed.]
