FRC Session 4…Stipulations of the Will

The last session ended in carnage with the party of PCs somewhat caught between caravan guards and attacking cultists of some sort. Although the PCs took their share of beating, they were the only ones left standing at the end (although a couple of them were down from wounds). The battle had been rather chaotic with multiple fronts, cultists fighting guards and PCs, guards fighting cultists and PCs, and PCs fighting caravan guards and cultists. There was no sign of why these cultists had attacked with such savagery, brutally killing all that they could, and the PCs had not yet found the item that they were hired to acquire…a brass and copper chest. We pick up with the aftermath of the battle after the break.

This recap is from Thomas. RJ was missing and so Thomas played Adran. My GM comments are in [brackets and italics]. We finally get to some of the more direct elements of the old Dungeon magazine (Issue #26) adventure, “The Inheritance,” that is the inspiration of the initial “plot hook” of Adran being the heir to a keep. Many (if not most) of the details aren’t quite as written in that adventure but there are still potential spoilers below.

The party begins by bringing unconscious Strik by a campfire and tying up unconscious survivors – two cultists and several other guards/drivers. As Bran is tying up the cultists, however, he notices they are covered in boils and pustules. Checking other cultists, this is true for them all except for the leader – the one that summoned the tentacle; he appears undiseased, although now dead. [Each of the cultists, except the apparent leader, had various signs of diseases such as boils, pustules, blotches, and poxes. The party took care to not touch the cultists as best they could even when tying them up.]

The party splits up to search for the box. Adran, Rory, Luther, and Dru pair up and begin searching inside the wagons, breaking the boxes and barrels in search for the brass and copper box for which they had been sent. Bran, asked to keep watch over Strik and the prisoners, wanders off to check [and loot] the dead on the northside of the camp. When he returns, he notices the two [tied up and unconscious] cultists are gone! He alerts the rest of the party, and as they all come out of the wagons, they begin to see ALL of the cultists getting up, even the dead ones!

The dead cultists simply trudge off into the darkness, however. They aren’t hostile and actually don’t even seem aware of much. So the party gets back to searching for the box. After several hours of breaking boxes, Luther and Dru finally find it! The party constructs a make-shift stretcher out of a tarp and spears to carry the unconscious Strik, wanting to get as far away from this grisly battle scene as possible before daybreak. [And leaving the unconscious guards & drivers tied up and at the mercy of whoever/whatever might happen by.]

Strik eventually wakes up [Sometimes 1d4 hours means 4 hours] and the party travels through the night back to Waterdeep, going straight to the Full Cup. As they arrive, there is a brief discussion about whether they should go inside or not, as the “proprietor” had previously told them they were not welcome back. As the party is talking, a group of six thugs come around the corner of the alley and ask who is Adran Amiker – using his full name. Strik, suspicious given it is not the same child and thugs sent previously by the halfling boss, attempts to get more information before giving up Adran, but the thugs weren’t interested in “acquiescing to [his] inquiries at that time.” So Adran steps forward. After some brief questioning on his part, much to the chagrin of the rest of the very trusting party, Adran begins to go off with the thugs, this time with no hood or rope to guide him.

The thugs get around the corner of the alley and one whispers to Adran, “This is for Luigi, you f@cker!” and the group begins to stab him. Adran screams and attempts to run away. He is able to make it back around the corner before dropping from his wounds. The party rushes forward to aid their companion, taking out two of the thugs before the rest run off. Strik heals Adran and the party goes inside the empty bar. [I wonder what that was all about…hmmm…trust me, it wasn’t just random street violence.]

The child arrives very soon after this, with the two thugs, and they lead Adran to the boss as before. Adran passes off the brass and copper box and receives his payment. Adran begins to explain the complications of the acquisition but the boss had a hot date he needed to get to so that conversation is stopped short. [The boss actually asked about complications but then kept cutting Adran off as he was trying to explain. I wonder what that was all about.]

In the meantime, the rest of the party figure that despite getting the money, they will be late for their meeting with the Magister. So Luther and Rory head off to get there and secure a later time. Adran and the rest of the party eventually do arrive and, after some unseemly exchange of money, are still able to meet with the Magister that evening. Again, after some negotiating, they are able to secure an appointment for the next morning for Adran to swear to his lineage.

[Unseemly exchange of money? Unseemly? Simply keeping the wheels of the bureaucracy of the City of Splendors greased. 😀 ]

The next morning the party arrives early at the Magister’s office. After swearing under the watchful eye of Tyr and one of his paladins (perhaps), the Magister reads the will of Caill Dafad. Apparently, Cagair Keep was attacked by orcs with a red-eyed beast. The attackers killed all of the retainers and family of Caill but he was able to escape out of a secret exit, however mortally wounded by an arrow wound. As Caill lay dying, he wrote his dying declaration as a will on the back of a bill of sale near Floshin Estate, where he was later found dead. The stipulations of the will require Adran to purge Cagair Keep of the aggressors as well as marry and have children (this within two years, not thirty days).

[The marriage bit stipulated that it was so the keep would remain in the family. To be honest, this isn’t a stipulation in the will in the adventure as written but was an idea that one of the players Thomas had come up with earlier and seemed like a nice little complication to add. I do like to keep things interesting by complicating them.

Also, Adran, while under the influence of the priest/paladin’s “lie detector” spell did tell a few lies that were not really relevant to establishing his claim as a legitimate heir but did seem to get the priest/paladin’s interest and I believe something to the effect of keeping his eye on Adran were spoken…just another little potential complication.]

The party knows the task before them, having seen some of the force at Cagair Keep – whether this is the original group that killed Caill and his family or not. They immediately set off for Daggerford, a three day journey. After arriving, the party heads to the Constable’s office to speak with Sherlyn in order to warn her of their plans.

In the conversation, Sherlyn shares that the group hasn’t been a nuisance but the opposite in fact. In the time we had been gone, there had been several bandit attacks on boats that had been thwarted by forces from Hawke’s Roost claiming to uphold “law and order.” Sherlyn also informs the party that Daggerford lands end two miles from the Keep and that she will not tolerate any murder on Daggerford lands. The party assure her they only intend to defend themselves or others on Daggerford lands and will do their work of bringing justice to the murderers of Caill Dafad and his family on Waterdeep land.

[For any who may have forgotten or not read earlier recaps, Hawke’s Roost is the name that the uniformed guards from the keep had given Cagair Keep when the party encountered them a couple of sessions ago.]

Given that Caill was found near Floshin Estate, the party decides to spend a day traveling there to see if they can gather any useful information as well as see to search for the secret exit Caill might have used to escape Cagair Keep. The plan was to loop around, anyway, and come at the Keep from the opposite side of the path (the one that leads to Daggerford).

As the party is approaching Floshin Estate (even before being able to see it), an elf approaches the party and asks their business. Explaining the situation, the elf agrees to show the party the location where Caill was found. The party finds nothing of interest but does notice a large ridge in the direction of where Cagair Keep would be, possibly hiding a secret exit in a cave or something. The elf is very reticent but agrees to allow the party camp on Floshin Estate’s land that night before they head out. The elf stays with the party the entire time and watches over them as they set up camp and eat dinner. Adran attempts to make friendly conversation but the elf remains aloof.

The camp decides on watch, with Bran being the first and the party beds down. As Bran stands watch, the elf assures him that he can sleep, as he will be watching over them and, presumably, their safety. So, as suggested, Bran goes to sleep.

[Todd is one of those players that DMs just love to have at the table for completely ignoring pretty much all and any “metagaming” and doing things that can cause all kinds of interesting “complications” for the party. Since we ended the session at this point, we don’t know yet if those is one of those times that Todd has complicated things.