This shall be my D&D blog. I just started DM'ing a new campaign, a first for me, and I'm going to be chronicling the adventures/hijinks of the group here.
To begin, the King of Ahnduin has summoned adventurers, mercenaries and sellswords of all sorts from across the land to investigate the mysterious appearance of an entire army of orcs that leveled the city of Norcayth and occupied it briefly, before an army was mustered to drive them out.
The group all answered the summons seperately, but were seated at the same table. Among them was the human wizard Aeon, dragonborn paladin Arjhan, human bard Holly, dwarven ranger Aviar, and elven rogue Roxy.
After they'd given the crowd of adventurers a quick glance, the king entered the great hall to address those gathered. However, before he could speak, one more sellsword made his presence known. Uncir of Shadar, a barbarian from the far north barged in, interrupting the king, and it looked as though a fight might break out, but tempers were tamped down before anything serious could occur.
The king made a brief speech, and then gathered up the more powerful and well known to give them their missions personally. Meanwhile, an army of pages descended upon the hall, carrying scrolls detailing missions for those of lesser status. Each member of the party was given their own mission to fulfill, although Tons Rather, the page assigned to their table, suggested that they might team up in order to handle the tasks more effectively.
Introductions were made, though the elf refused to give her name at first, rousing suspicion amongst the others. Aeon attempted to detect thoughts but she made her will save, though not by enough to notice the attempt.
The various missions were discussed, and the page was questioned until it was decided that they would seek at the aid of Obidyr, a powerful wizard who has appearantly gone made since hearing of the attack on Norcayth, and who happens to be Aeon's teacher. They agreed to meet in front of the castle in the morning and retired to various inns for the night.
Aeon, Roxy and Holly all opted to stay at the upscale Mountain's Peak inn, across the courtyard from the castle, where various minor nobles and important merchants who don't quite warrant a room in the castle usually stay. Aviar found his way to the Hammer and Anvil, an inn catering specifically to dwarves, which even had a dwarven bard, and Arjhan found a rough establishment out towards the walls called the Dragon's Fang.
Aeon, and Roxy were greeted courteously by the innkeeper, and elderly woman by the name of Gaerla, though Holly was mistaken for their servant. After that misunderstanding had been cleared up, Aeon and Holly took meals in their rooms, and Roxy ate in the commons. After Roxy had gone into the common room, Aeon asked to be moved into a different room without her knowledge. Little did he know that Roxy had pocketed his scroll whilst they were speaking with Gaerla.
Took a look at Aeon's scroll and discovered that, to her eyes, it did not detail another mission at all, it just seemed to say that whomever bore it was on a mission for the king. Her curiosity piqued, she overhead the conversation of a pair of adventurer's she recognized from the castle, appearantly complaining about the pointlessness of their mission.
She sidled up next to them to pickpocket one of their scrolls, under the pretense of watching the minstrel on the stage. She learned, however, that one of them was not particularly fond of elves. She still managed to take a peek at his scroll, which appeared to read the same as Aeon's. She made it known what she'd done as she walked away, and the man nearly drew sword on her, but his companion calmed him down.
She then bribed and threatened a halfling servant into returning the scroll to Aeon without letting him know that she was the source. The halfling did his job the next morning, though Aeon used detect thoughts and learned the truth of the matter from his mind. He waited for Roxy as he ate breakfast, but she slipped out of the inn unseen.
They eventually all met in front of the castle as planned, and set out southwest along the Verdan road, heading towards Erash. On the sixth day they arrived at the village of Kingsford, along the River Ahnd, where folk were acting rather skittish, and seemed none to pleased about a group of heavily armed strangers in town.
The paladin persuaded one of the villagers to speak up about the bandits that had been dogging the town, and the party, with reactions ranging from concerned to dismissive went to consult the captain of the guards. Though bluff and skeptical at first, Arjhan brought him around, and he explained that though he could probably easily wipe the bandits out, he didn't know where their hideout was, and he'd have to leave the town defenseless in order to find them and bring them to justice. He also mentions a foolish young knight who ran off a few days ago, trying to find them and bring them in, who has probably been captured, if not killed.
After hearing that a young paladin was potentially in danger, as well as a whole village living in fear, Arjhan insisted that the party intervene. With some reluctance, the party set out to find the bandits trail, discover their hideout and bring them to justice.
Return later for part II.
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