This is a recap of the LFR (MyRealms) adventure I ran last night:
(This is actually
the 4th adventure in the Drow group I have run. I haven't recapped every adventure, and since the groups are different (with some overlap) the adventures are not "instanced". )
PCs:
Lady Cyntelle (female drow cleric)
Teb'bryn (male drow assassin)
Dra'vanna (female drow warlord and slaver)
Bjorkus (enslaved minotaur fighter)
...and the new PC
Grudge (revenant drow fighter)
We introduced a new player (and character), so there was a bit of a recap at the start where we worked out exactly where the new Revenant Fighter, Grudge, was from. We talked about a couple of possible origins (a group of PCs had broken into a ruined temple of the forgotten drow goddess Kiaransalee in the 2nd adventure, so he could have come from there, and there was a visiting vampire lord to the Drow House who brought a retinue of guards.. it was decided that Grudge was one of the undead guards).
SO Grudge turns out to have been one of Lord Shiver (the vampire)'s retinue of guards.
We started out with local rumors- I sort of went around the table:
Grudge had very little idea of local rumors (streetwise check was low!) in the Drow house- he didn't speak elven, and although the drow were exceedingly accomodating to Shiver and his guards, they mostly left them alone. However, he did know this: Shiver had received an invitation to the annual ball at House Phil'ozza and it was a cause for some controversy. This was the first year that the other notable members of House Rilyntel were
not invited.
OOC: The reasons for this is that Rilyntel is on the verge of being exiled- they have defied the will of Rilyntel's queen by not taking part in an important sacrifice, and a rival house is already planning on using the opportunity to purge them.
So Shiver summons his bodyguards and selects Grudge (the new PC) and Grieve (an NPC) to accompany him for a special mission.
Next up was Lady Cyntelle; of course all of the priestesses were aware that the house was being snubbed this year, but she had more important things to take care of. In one of the previous adventures, she had intercepted an encrypted letter (treachery!) from a rival priestess to House Veltran.. and had convinced the assassin Teb'bryn (who was on his way to becoming her protege) to forge a new version of it that would lead part of Veltran's invaders into an ambush. Then, she had ordered the assassination of Veltran's spymaster.
The assassination by this time was carried out (in the last adventure) but there were complications- they had to kill a servant, and the Spymistress' own guard- a slaver named Aethl'yss had tracked Tebbryn's group down as they were dumping the bodies in the slums of T'Lindhet. Caught red-handed (and attacked) they had no choice but to fight- and in the end Aethl'yss and his retainers were also killed and thrown into a pool of acid. Teb'bryn sufferd a grievous wound (critted with an orc's greataxe) but limped his group back to the safety of Rilyntel's complex.
Teb'bryn made his report. Complication: Aethl'yss had been carrying on a relationship with Dra'vanna. Lady Cyntelle advised they keep that part quiet. In the meantime, she had become suspicious of her rival priestess' cultivation of a thief named Livatro. Teb'bryn took it upon himself to keep an eye on the thief, and shadowed him around. He soon found out that Livatro was shadowing
him, or attempting to. Teb'bryn held the advantage in matters of stealth.
(Note: Livatro is another PC, but not one present in this game).
Teb'bryn had a very good ear for gossip and rumors (high steetwise check!) and knew several things: Rilyntel was likely going to be attacked...and soon. He also had heard about a certain prisoner being smuggled in to Rilyntel in the dead of night (around the same time as he returned from the assassination).
Cyntelle and Tebbryn were summoned for a special mission at this point (going the same place where Shiver was)...
As for Dra'vanna- she was meant to meet up with Aethl'yss (assassinated in a previous game) and so she showed up at the isolated fungus garden away from both Veltran and Rilyntel.. (in the players words.. "to fight or make out or both..) and Aethl'yss never showed up. He was slowly dissolving in an acid pool a few miles away. Dravanna was aware of being snubbed by House Philozza but didn't care. Only the priestesses concerned themselves with petty social affairs.
Disappointed, she returned to take it on her slaves (including Bjorkus, the minotaur).
Bjorkus had a very high streetwise roll (so he got to hear all of the rumors) AND he was connected to the slave network of rumors- he heard about the mysterious prisoner as well as one nobody else had heard about: a certain goblin servant and her children had been taken away to the Matron's chambers a few hours earlier.
So this was the roleplay that took up the opening stretches of the game.
When they arrived, the Matron was there, threatening the goblin babies in front of the new prisoner- a servant from House Phil'ozza. The goblin servant (who was the father of the two babies of the servant of House Rilyntel- perhaps that wasn't clear) was intimidated into sabotaging one of the two ballrooms of House Phil'ozza (flooding it with acid from Phil'ozza's alchemical warehouse), which would force the Masquerade party to take place in a ballroom adjacent to the main Phil'ozza complex. "Please don't hurt my babies!"
This just happened to adjoin a secret passage to a hidden level beneath House Phil'ozza where their Oraculum- a scrying chamber-- was located. Shiver knew where the secret passage was, and he provided a general description of the Oraculum lens he hoped to steal.
Since he was the only "official" invitee, the rest of the party members would be taking on disguises (it was a masquerade after all)- as his undead retinue, and join him at the party. At some point, they would break off from the festivities, locate the secret passage, and steal the Oraculum right from House Phil'ozza.
So they made preparations. Dra'vanna started by buying some low-grade poison, and a disguise kit was provided. Tebbryn had the highest bluff so he put together everyone's disguises. Grudge only needed the barest disguise (he was already undead, so he didn't have to change much). The rest of the group would have a much harder time. They also provided one scroll of "Disguise Self" to the only ritual caster in the group- Lady Cyntelle.
The group decided that the scroll might be best if used in reserve.. ie- Cyntelle would wear a mundane disguise, but if caught (or someone else was) they could use the scroll to facilitate an escape.
So the very first roll on the skill challenge was Tebbryns use of disguises, which he aced. And the party went around the table to describe what their costumes were: essentially they each had two costumes- they had to be disguised as undead, AND had to be wearing a costume for the masquerade.
... To be continued!
...more later, including what happened at the party, (the skill challenge!) and so on...