Here is the Week 1 handout given to my players. Right after that is the Week 1 Recap:
24 Frostfail, 1013, Moontallst, Kingdom of Kaordan
And, with the final positions filled, the Westward Company became a complete entity. Those fortunate or foolhardy enough to gain these coveted positions for this mighty caravan of settlers would spend the next three days alternately dreaming and fearing what was to come.
Amongst the nobility, the next three days would be a non-stop party. Grand farewells, verbose, rambling speeches, and dance after dance with the new, would-be “aristocracy of the West” took center stage. Ladies adorned themselves with leaves in their hair, in the spirit of the Noble Wild, and gasped and fluttered their fans to sensational stories of Ogrish depravations, lost treasures, and anticipated Kaordi bravado relating thereto.
In the streets and shops of Moontallst, the merchant and honest citizens of the city bought up unofficial “biographies” of that stalwart leader and war hero, Sir Artos Hale. Other booksellers saw fanciful, erroneous, and blatantly deceptive accounts of the West sold by the bale, most of these penned by pudgy, domestically placid sorts who had never gone father than Telios. In the taverns and bars, drovers, guides, mercenaries, soldiers, and others accompanying the Company drank, caroused, and basked in the envy of their less-fortunate peers.
In haystacks outside of Moontallst, peasant farmers dreamed of a land with incredible crops, no boundaries, and their own parcel of land. The fact they had only the clothers on their back and perhaps a ratty blanket (and certainly no money for a bed in the city) didn’t bother most of them—it isn’t as if their small plots back home had held any more for them. And if more than one peasant boy dreamed of becoming a bronze god of a conqueror, well, who could fault him?
But amidst these dreams of pleasant, hazy futures, majestic adventures, and glory and riches untold, there lurked several forces that did not rejoice in the upcoming departure of the Westward Company. Even as the Company prepares for its grand send-off by King Faustes and the Royal Family in front of the Royal Palace come FirstDay, shadows lurk on the fringes of the celebration and light, preparing to set terrible, fell plans and deeds in motion…
…
By the time the party was done at Sir Artos Hale’s residence, there were only a few hours of daylight left. Sir Artos had arranged for each of the individuals he had just hired to receive an advance/sign-on bonus of 5 silver. And off the various party members went, with two nights to spend until the Grand Farewell for the Westward Company on FirstDay, in front of the Royal Palace.
Roderick had very few coins left in his pocket, so he went to a stable not far from the center of the city, where His Majesty had graciously allowed some elements of the caravan to use the City Green to pack and finalize preparations (most elements of the caravan were assembling just outside of the city walls). There, he was able to find basic food and shelter in exchange for helping the stable owner, Smitty, shovel crap, lift some miscellaneous heavy stuff, and basically do some brute labor. Roderick, being of serf origins in Alrychium, was quite content with this. He did, however, strike out for a nearby tavern, looking for some information on his personal quest: the search for the one-legged man (and no, you can't know why yet).
He bummed around town for a while before going into a rather rough-looking tavern (The Rusty Belt), run by an even rougher-looking one-eyed, massive woman named (of course) Bertha. Roderick had to shell out a few of his coins to get any information out of her, but it turned out to be a good choice. There were a lot of one-legged men, sure, but the way he described him, fancy clothes and whatnot, seems like her friend, Lydia, over at the House of the Smiling Sturgeon, had mentioned a one-legged fellow a few weeks back, who had cut up one of her girls pretty bad.
Roderick thanked her, and, getting directions to that house of ill repute, the Smiling Sturgeon, headed directly there. Lydia was the madam, and given her “retired” status, was surprised to hear of a strapping young man asking for her by name. She did insist however, that Roderick pay for her time, no matter how that time was spent. So, using his last few coins, Roderick paid out the fee, and was rewarded with the tale of the one-legged man, who had cut up not one, but a couple of her girls before escaping out of a window. She couldn’t give him a name, but she had discovered a couple of things he had left behind. Among them was this note, hastily scribbled on a piece of torn paper:
Thanking her, Roderick took this clue and left, headed back to the stables. He could wait—after all, the caravan had to pass through the city of Alten on their way westward…
While this went on, the other members of the party had not been idle. Roan Allshower, newly-appointed retainer of Sir Artos and company guide, decided to take his five silver pieces and run out to a music shop at once! There, he purchased a fine set of pan pipes. Happy with this purchase, he fell into conversation with the store’s proprietor. He revealed that he was a member of the Westward Company, and the proprietor wondered if he might play his pipes and make an appearance at his Guild meeting the next night. Roan declined, but did hear in the course of the conversation that the BIG party in town that night was a farewell party for the second-in-command of the Westward Company (appointed by the King himself!), Sir Alosius Bestley. It would be held on the west end of town, in Sir Bestley’s extensive city manor itself! Of course, he would never be invited (and be sure, it was invite-only) to such a fine affair himself, but he knew others who…
Roan was off. He had plans.
* * *
In another part of town, Winter Siege, the somewhat more serious-minded Kankoran Psi-Healer, was looking for lodging. Along the way, he noticed several booksellers advertising books about the West, as well as all sorts of biographies about that most famed Kaordi war hero, Sir Artos Hale. Winter was trying to get a better idea of what to expect from his new employer, and picked up two books:
Sir Artos: A Study, as well as the somewhat more fanciful
Sir Artos, Dread of Oasis (Oasis being the nation he had so soundly defeated some two decades earlier).
With this completed, Winter found a small inn that seemed to cater to non-humanoids called The Cackling Hen. He had also gleaned from the bookseller that there was an invite-only party at Sir Bestley’s that evening. He decided to saunter that way and see what was going on.
* * *
Maggie, the Night Elf Fairy, was already living up to that time-honored fairy tradition of Causing Problems For Mortals. She too had heard via her flitting about that the big soiree was at Sir Bestley’s, and so that was clearly going to be her destination.
She met up with Roan, who had also found Darius and let him know what was going on, and the three of them decided to crash the party. Going up to the gate of the vast estate, Roan and Darius were met by several of Sir Bestley’s household guards, as well as a mincing, self-important functionary who was taking invitations and greeting guests. Given that Roan and Darius were wearing hides and furs, respectively, and seeing as how they did not have invitations, it is unsurprising that the functionary gave them a very cold reception. They did, however, cause enough of a distraction that Maggie was able to sneak into the party undetected.
Inside, she was immediately drawn to a large fountain in the center of the main ballroom that was full of some sort of punch beverage. She used one of the vials of her Fairy Poisons—namely, “Ants In The Pants”—to spike this display/fount. She then found a remote corner and waited for the results.
Outside, the situation had not improved for Roan or Darius. By this time, more carriages full of high-ranking and noble invitees had shown up, and the two were blocking the entrance. The Wolfen Knight, Krell Rayner, as well as Winter had also happened along by this time, and though Krell attempted to defuse things, they were going from bad to worse quickly. Roan got directly in the way of an extremely elderly man with a good two dozen medals on his chest, General William DeFaunes, who had put helped put down the last large-scale Calcordian rebellion (Darius is nominally Calcordian, btw). Ignoring any rancor he might have felt, Darius tried to butter him up by praising his military prowess, but Roan refused to move, and General DeFaunes began to brandish his cane at the young rapscallion. DeFaunes actually did manage to thrash Roan one about the ears before the City Guard—12 of them in all, managed to show up. At that point, after politely asking if they had invites and threatening arrest, the Guard Sergeant was able to get them to move along.
Refusing to bow to defeat (or common sense, some might say), Roan and Darius came up with the brilliant plan of just going further down the road and trying to persuade some gullible invitee that they were taking passes due to congestion at the gate. After several tries, Roan did manage to snag the invitations of a Lord and Lady Ketterman (Roan did not know the names on the invites, as he couldn’t read).
Back at the main gate for the party, Sir Artos Hale himself at last made his appearance, accompanied by his personal secretary, the Wood Elf Colteris. Seeing “Sir” Krell and Winter idling about nearby, he invited both of them to accompany him into the party. He did make sure they were aware that many of the upper crust at the party would find the attendance of humanoids distasteful. He seemed somewhat pleased at that fact as it related to it being Sir Bestley’s party. Colteris also began to grumble about how Sir Bestley had been appointed not by Sir Artos, but the King himself. It became clearly quickly to Winter and Krell that Sir Artos had a thinly-veiled dislike of his second-in-command.
The sight that greeted Sir Artos’ party inside was a strange one—several individuals in the vicinity of the punch fountain were writhing and wriggling about, several seemingly attempt to scratch a severe itch several places at once. From her hiding spot, Maggie laughed and laughed….
* * *
Outside, Darius and Roan approached the gate triumphantly, brandishing their purloined invites to the functionary. The functionary said he would have been happy to let them in, except for the fact that a) there was no way that the fellow in hides and the massive fellow in furs in front of him were Lord and Lady Ketterman, and b) the real Lord and Lady Ketterman had shown up at the gate some 10 minutes earlier, saying that 2 individuals matching the description of Roan and Darius had taken their passes. With that, Roan and Darius turned around to see the City Guard again waiting for them. Informed they were to be taken to jail, Roan disagreed, and used his wind powers to levitate away over the rooftops, leaving his erstwhile partner to his fate.
Darius became belligerent with the idea of arrest and spending the night in jail, and threatened to turn it into a bloody fight. However, due to some pretty good luck (not to mention dice rolls), he was able to convince the Guard Sergeant to settle it with him via fisticuffs. Either bored wanting to end it without it escalating further (Darius was toying with the idea of drawing his knife, at one point, which really would have changed the lighter tone), the Sergeant agreed.
We decided that combat would be over whenever either combatant had lost their SDC (but not Hit Points). Darius was definitely stronger than the Sergeant, but the Sergeant was just as proficient in bareknuckle brawling as he was.
Darius got a few choice licks in early on, but the Sergeant reversed things quickly, rolling two crits and knocking Darius up against the gate. A man of his word, Darius went along with the guards to jail.
Meanwhile, Roan levitated his way right over the city wall, startling a young guardsman on his way over. He’d be hanging outside the city for a while.
* * *
Inside Sir Bestley’s party, thing were not going as Sir Bestley had hoped. Certainly the Royal Quartet was playing wonderfully, and most of the highest-ranking guests he had invited had shown, but why had also those people been shaking and itching by the punch bowl? Most irregular. And now, that old beak-nosed fusspot, Sir Artos Hale, had arrived, as had been expected (and required by etiquette), but he had brought along a Wolfen and a…a…fox creature to this party! Several of the older matrons had complained. At least neither of the animals was going wild and savaging the guests or cleaning themselves in public! Still, he resolved to greet Sir Artos and explain the difficulty of the situation to him. Certainly even that old has-been could appreciate the delicate rules of society and good breeding…
Sir Artos would have none of it. He defended the two, and roundly chastised Bestley for attempting to order him about on several points of expedition business. Bestley, ignoring Winter and Krell as best he could, excused himself as quickly as he could.
Maggie was watching. She had a new target.
* * *
The night was spent differently for many: Roderick, having had an adequate supper, merely went to bed in the stable loft. Roan had found a nice haystack outside the city and bedded down for the night. Sir Artos had recommended a humanoid-tolerant inn for Krell to stay at, called The White Hat. It was very nearly dawn when Krell made it there, and he immediately fell asleep. Winter likewise returned to his quarters for rest.
Darius sat in jail, but not for the long: with the dawn came Colteris, whom Sir Artos had sent to bail out Darius. Darius was led immediately to Artos’ residence again, where a very tired Artos reprimanded him (surprisingly gently) for his general silliness and poor planning. He also sent him out to find Roan, and to tell him he was not under any circumstances to return to Moontallst, to simply meet the caravan as it left the city. He also told Darius not to return to the city either, but gave him permission to hunt on his cousin’s holdings a few miles outside of the city after he had given the message to Roan.
Maggie, meanwhile, was causing trouble for her newest target. She discovered Sir Bestley asleep in his very exquisitely-appointed chambers. Next to him lay his mistress, a mountainous woman who was snoring loudly. Maggie took Sir Bestley’s slippers, dipped them into the chamber pot, and then flew outside until she found a couple fo servants, who she told Sir Bestley was being attacked.
As she flew away, she heard a terrible commotion from the bedroom, a rather high-pitched scream, a rather deep voice shouting (she never did figure out which voice belonged to which person), and finally Sir Bestley demanding someone fetch his slippers.
All in a day’s work for a fairy.
* * *
Winter slept in; across town, Roderick was up early. Finishing his shoveling, he discovered from some teamsters that there would be a giant bonfire outside of the city the next night for a lot of the lower classes and peasantry going on the expedition. Now that, he reasoned, was the sort of party he belonged to.
Over the course of the day, one way or another, each of the characters found out about the bonfire that night. Of course, there were some loose ends and miscellaneous tasks many of the players wanted to tie up; Maggie went and visited an apothecary, who was had terrible flashbacks of the last time a fairy was in his store (it took months to figure out which medicine or potion was in which bottle), and made sure to do nothing to offend or anger her. Maggie purchased…well, let’s just say plenty of items that a fairy wanting to make mischief would purchase.
Winter spent the day reading about Sir Artos. One book turned out to be pretty over-the-top tripe, but the other one gave a good historical accounting of his unorthodox military strategies, as well as some of the events he was most famous for, such as his defeating two separate, larger Oasis armies in the same day. He also discovered he had taken over for the (late) defeated General Simon Bestley, whom Winter figured out was Alosius Bestley’s father.
Darius attempted to return to the city to talk to Sir Artos, but only succeeding in sending a message via a beggar. Sir Artos sent a page with a message for Darius, emphasizing he was to stay out of the city.
The day passed on, and soon it was time for the bonfire. Roan and Darius managed to bring some deer and rabbits, and some other folks had also managed to hunt/poach some foodstuffs as well. Several merchants had set up ale tents, and soon the party was in full swing.
Roan played his pan pipes quite well (even if he danced not so well). Darius also got in on the act, and Maggie tried to sing a fairy song for everyone before learning that perhaps she wasn’t that great at it.
Maggie did have one more prank up her sleeve, in association with Roan. She thought it would be really funny to try out this aphrodisiac she purchased from the apothecary earlier. Roan arranged for a gentle wind to blow the powder onto the roasting venison, but the only effect this had is that three rotund blacksmiths who directly after took large hunks of venison began to dance to the music in a manner that no one wants to see rotund blacksmiths pursue.
Roderick also had pipes, and was playing them quite well also. This irritated Roan, who “asked” the wind if it wouldn’t mind making his pipes clam up. Unphased by this strangeness, Roderick started chatting it up with several peasant girls, telling them of his times of his gladiatorial arena and whatnot. Roderick would end up not wanting for company that evening.
Winter and Krell seemed to have a good time as well—Krell was out of money, and was happy he just had some food to eat, even if his lodging that night would be the great outdoors. Winter seemed amused at the humans cavorting and capering about, but remained the soul of politeness.
As the night wore on, Maggie and Darius began to formulate another plan. Although it was still very early in the year for most plants, they did manage to gather up a few scattered poison ivy leaves. Darius had no problem handling these, but Maggie did. With a “whoops” from Darius, Maggie found out she was EXTREMELY allergic to poison ivy. She looked like a little puffy red ball of anger! Painfully, she flew back to the apothecary, was she extremely overpaid to basically bathe in a soothing, relieving lotion-like concoction.
Roan grew worried about her, and again made his way over the city wall, startling again the same guardsman.
“Sorry-the fairy’s itchy,” Roan said in passing.
As he floated away, he heard the guardsman being questioned in a sharp voice by one of his superiors. “Well, the fairy’s itchy…” started the guardsman, as Roan floated out of earshot.
In the apothecary’s Maggie was nearly finished soaking, as the apothecary went into the back room in preparation for closing for the night. She decided she had overpaid for the bath, and managed to sneak away with 3 more vials of unidentified mixtures. Both her and Roan made their way out of the city.
Darius had been worried, and would not leave the west gate of the city until the guards sent one of their own to check on the apothecary shop. At the time the guard arrived, Maggie had been bathing innocently, and so he came back with a positive report.
With that, each of the characters had finished up their evening. The next morning would be the Grand Farewell in front of the Royal Palace, and then the caravan would begin its journey westward….
GM’s Note: I had still planned this as a session of “settling in”, so to speak, so I really wasn’t surprised that we really (except Darius) didn’t hit combat or get to the caravan’s departure this week. But that should definitely change next week—depending on how things go, stuff could get gritty quick!