Sometimes you have a meeting planned out and the group might go a bit off script so to speak. One of the players at my table occasionally asks after all the side chatter and weird role playing if we got as far as I expected, given that the adventures are usually "X" meetings long. This meeting moved the needle on my "adventure expectations for the night" exactly zero spaces.
Whatever I expected the night to go, it went nowhere in that direction. Instead I played DM off the cuff most of the night and the party had a great time. The adventure will take however long it will take to resolve - it was nights like that that had the table rocking and rollicking.
Follows:
We went and got something to eat, discussing what the rest of the day was going to bring. “I want to find a chick and get laid,” Grendel suggested, looking around the Third Breach. “This ain’t the right place for that. Too high brow.”
“Another time,” Dizzy suggested as the conversation wound about the place, eventually settling on either heading north to IronCamp and Thak to finish Dizzy’s desire to reclaim his holy symbol, or looking for the Grues as Eoghan still was wont to do.
“Is any of that going to happen today?” Wilhelm asked. Getting some negatives in response, the druid shrugged and said, “I’d really like to see if we can find any local wild cats if we can.”
“Why?”
“To make friends.”
“You mean co-workers,” Dizzy supplied.
“No, friends,” Wilhelm said.
“Yeah,” Grendel agreed. “Like we all are.”
Dizzy looked at the elf and nodded. “Yep. Coworkers. People who work together.”
Grendel couldn’t understand Dizzy’s stance on the matter and was drinking slowly, frowning often. Connal wasn’t saying much for now, pensively looking in his mug. But for Wilhelm, Dizzy, Eoghan, and Grygmiir all said they’d go with him to look for strays. “Leeward,” Eoghan suggested, pointing southwest, “that would be the best place to find what you’re looking for.”
The four of them agreed to go and everyone suggested they’d be back here for early dinner (4ish). Well all left the Breach and went our ways, the four friends following Eoghan’s direction first as he brought them to the center of town and the still noisy Coliseum and then around to the Empire’s Way. From here, the waste water and sewer areas all congregated and made their way through wide troughs in the cobbled streets, a slow moving river of waste and what not making its way through Leeward and then beyond to the leeching pits beyond.
The quality of the homes and streets were poor and in places where the troughs were dammed up, some places the roads turned into foul lakes. But along the back area of the town where the populace had faded away and more that 3 homes in 5 were abandoned, we came upon an area with a number of feral cats.
Through a variety of coaxing and tossing of dried meats, Wilhelm managed to snag a distrusting filthy orange and white cat close enough, and called upon Frey to allow him to charm the animal. It sidled closer and made some effort to control itself. Its tail had been mangled in the past and had about half its original length. Another cat, a black and brown one, was more interested in staying around and mimicked the orange one, looking at Wilhelm and begging for food. After discussing it with the group, Wilhelm called to Frey again and charmed the second cat, gathering both animal companions.
On getting them closer, and seeing the poor state of their mange, lice, and coats; an anti-vermin barrier spells was called upon and the animals were blasted free of pests (and surprisingly, us as well!), and then they made their way slowly out of the area, heading back to the better, and less foul scented, section of town.
Connal meanwhile was walking slowly and deliberately to the Lord’s District, counting out the Demesnes until he arrived at the closed gates of Lord Dunthar Rockhome. He inquired with the guards if the Lord would speak with him again and waited. To the guards' (and Connal’s) surprise, Lord Dunthat was willing to meet with the monastic and he was escorted once again to the Lord’s Manor house and then eventually his audience chamber. The mountain dwarf, and his wizard Sorli and cleric Kridi were here as well. And even Hogni, his brother, was there. Connal was not invited to sit.
The Lord was surprised to see Connal and the monk wasted no time, offering his own services to go and get the Grues. “That window has closed,” the Lord replied, indicating that they had already sent missive to Erylond to find another group. “Plus, you are one person, I want a group. And your group said no.”
What followed was an interesting exchange of offers and counter offers, with Connal eventually getting to a place where the party would sign off (in blood) for the job, but do it at 900 nobles (or 9,000 commons) instead. He also learned that Lord Dunthar was wroth with Dizzy, putting most of the blame of the breakdown on the cleric/thief. “And what kind of a dwarf is he?!” he went on, bemoaning his lack of clan, poor appearance, off putting looks and attitude. “The chair he sat in?” he went on, “I had it burned after you and yours had left.” Sure enough, Connal looked around the chamber and there were only 19 out of the original 20 chairs in the room.
“If you can get them to come back and sign off by 6 PM tonight, then you and yours are hired. If you don’t come back, there won’t be a third opening of my door for you.” Connal thanked the Lord Dunthar for the chance and took his lead of the Rockhomes, shouldering more invectives and poorly disguised insults from the Odinian Matron, Kridi.
Lastly, Grendel went bar hopping. He moved slowly south, sampling taverns and pubs along the way, hoping to find one where the drinks were cheaper and the woman more plentiful. His looks did garner him many second glances, but the elven warrior didn’t feel anything that would make him stop and stay.
He wandered from Tops, to Eastview, and eventually found himself in the industrial section of town called “the Trades”. Carpenters, smiths, masons and the like. He snagged a beer or two but it was when he was thinking he should move closer north again and try the places around the Coliseum that his sensitive ears picked up cheering and laughing children and what seemed to be calliope music from somewhere nearby. Down Last Road and the corner of Sweet Street were 4 very large warehouse buildings, each 2 stories tall and maybe 80, 100’ wide. The center one was painted in striped motley of colors and had the name “Falser’s Confections” printed in huge letters over the main doors.
Scores of kids and their parents were milling about as gnomes and orcish hawkers were enticing them to buy bits of hard candy or participate in the games and play area set up. Two big Randari Orcs, almost 7’ tall and pushing 350, 400 lbs, were dressed in motley finery, powdered faced and painted expressions, each holding a 9’ tall candy cane. Even made up, Grendel could tell they looked miserable. “I don’t envy you,” he commiserated with them, getting a grunt in reply and a, “You have no idea,” Especially as one of the young kids came up and gave the closer orc a sharp punch to the thigh. “Candy!” He laughed, running away.
A gnome tried to engage Grendel to buy some but was told, “I don’t do candy. Just looking for good beer.” Still hoping to make a sale, suggested that the elf go inside to the “adult” section of candy and see some of the alcoholic tasting candy had within. Intrigued, he did so, seeing more half ogres and orcs and so so so many gnomes. He made his way to the back where a friendly gnome gave him a sample of a potent beer tasting candy which Grendel actually enjoyed! He purchased five more, thanking the gnome for them. “What’s your name?” he asked.
“Malted, my good man. Malted Falser.”
“Nice.” Grendel left, sucking on another one. “Nice gnome.” He wanted to let the rest of the party know about the strange candy factory here. At the end of the block a 4 count of men stumbled out, bumping into the elf. Some words were exchanged, rude comments given, and the 4 men left going on their way. A woman nearby inquired if Grendel was ok, and then suggested that he check his pouch. Sure enough, two gold crowns were missing!
“Where the fuck?!” he whirled around but the men were nowhere to be found. He spoke to the woman and learned that the one that did most of the talking was a local tough named, Groa. She doesn’t know where he lives, but most nights he could be found at a place a few blocks over called Two Bites. They got to talking, her name was Staki Seamstress, she was in her early 20’s, and was willing to spend some time with the elf. They got to talking and flirting, getting a drink together, and he set up a proper date with her tomorrow.
He went back to the Third Breach where the rest of the party all congregated. We discussed all we had done, checked out Wilhelm’s cats, Grendel wanted to beat the fuck out of Groa tonight and wanted the group to back him up, and Connal revealed his meeting with Rockhome. So much to discuss!
We all agreed to sign on with Rockhome and would do the blood contract. And then afterward, head off to Two to support, protect, and keep Grendel from getting in his own trouble. “I want to kill that guy!” Shhh, not so loud. And no.
We went off to Rockhome’s Demesne before the 6 PM cut off and Lord Dunthar and retinue met with us. There were more subtle and not so subtle digs thrown about, but Dizzy surprised everyone by offering half his funds to everyone else to make up the shortfall. Contract changes were made, stabs of fingers ensued, and the contract was ratified, Lord Dunthar signing his own as well in blood for his part. Ok. From there we went south to the other end of town and Dizzy was doing his best to contact any thieves in the area.
Seems he wanted a meeting with Groa’s “hilt” so to speak, and he waited for everyone to go in first. Begging Grendel to wait for him to go first. He noted when Groa and 3 others came in. The boss was a person named Froi, and he let Dizzy lead them out of the tavern and to the alley behind. He gave some cover as a visiting thief and wanted to say hi. He’s here, might be working, but didn’t want to run afoul of the guild.
By this time Grendel who had a mean drunk on, went out back with the rest of the group, Dizzy fading back. Grendel wanted his money back, Groa told him to pound sand. Froi tried to mediate and say that no one actually saw the crime happen, so chalk it up to a learning experience and move on. But the two men grew wroth and blows were thrown. Fists his flesh and the party kept weapons sheathed, Froi letting it play out for now.
The elf took a few good shots, haymaker and at one point, was staggering. But got a lucky blow when Groa tripped up and got knocked out with a kick to the head. When he went for the belt pouch, Froi got involved and was like no fucking way. But it got heated, a lunge was made, and the hilt struck Grendel with a coated stiletto, quick acting poison rendering the elf unconscious for now.
Which got everyone else ready to sling blows but Dizzy came back and wanted this to be smoothed over. Your man is down, ours is down. Check the pouch, 2 gold in there? And Froi was dismayed to see in the pouch of bits and a few commons, were indeed 2 gold crowns. He kept one, gave one to Dizzy to give to Grendel, and told the party to keep their man away from his, or this would get real bad real fast.
We agreed and hoisted Grendel up, walking him out of the alley and away from the lower class section of town, leaving Froi and his people somewhere behind us. The elf got up and was realy fucking mad, but thanked Dizzy for getting his money back (the dwarf added 1 gold from his pouch to make it look like the elf had gotten both coins back). Grendel was happy the party sided with him and everyone felt closer for the experience for now. It was 5:30 PM and we were going to head back to Third Breach for now, talk about what we would do first regarding Jessie Underfoot and the Grues, and what tomorrow would bring.
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