Time for another Meetup one-shot at the brewery. I've been meaning to run Shadowdark, since I've been playing in Tim's Komor campaign, so here we go. Had a full table, with folks grabbing pre-gens or bringing their own cannon fodder/characters:
- Seana: Burl, dwarf fighter (bald)
- Brian: Theo, human priest (ridged cap)
- Selwyn: Roman: human thief (fur-lined hood)
- Claire: Poker: halfling thief (beret)
- Dakota: Borl: human wizard (gem-encrusted helmet)
As per usual, started off with some random headgear and a few quick RP questions. I also bumped everyone to 2nd level for a bit of resiliency. I had a few options for adventure, and we settled on a city adventure, since that held more opportunities for thievery.
So the party was lodging on the cheap in the dock district of Chirath... Brother Theo visited the local temple to his faith (nature-oriented, neutral, silver pinecone holy symbol) looking for some charity and/or a task. Father Anselmo greeted the acolyte, and reported that through conversations with colleagues of other temples, foul necromancy was afoot in the city. Unfortunately, the suspected necromancer was a well-regarded businessman. Perhaps a party of 'independent contractors' from out of town could rid the city of this troublesome necromancer. Payment in goodwill and whatever they could lift.
Time to go wine-tasting.
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The party paid a visit to "Saint Sephaton's Wine Garden." They were seated by greeter Gaz Hamati. Looking at their meagre coin, they ordered the house red. The servers brought out glasses of wine and some bread and cheese. The PCs looked around at the other clientele, some of whom had bottles of better vintages brought to their tables.
Proprietor Vito Mitras made his way around the tables, making sure everyone was satisfied. Time to sneak. The two thieves made their way to the 'facilities.' Poker did the halfling disappearing thing and created a distraction of knocking over some glasses. Roman crept upstairs, and Poker downstairs. Roman found Mitras' quarters and rooted through the desk until he found a coin purse and a secret compartment with a hidden ledger. Poker, in the meantime, made it downstairs into the wine seller. Although distracted by the cheese wheels and hanging prosciutto, an underlying scent of death indicated something amiss. After some poking about, she found the secret door to the catacombs. She made use of it to hide as an employee came down to collect some refreshments. Back up, and a bit of subterfuge by the two PCs to get back to the table. Let's pay the tab and see what we found.
Returning to their modest lodgings, a certain "Hidden Hand" inn and tavern, Roman revealed the secret ledger. The ledger contained lists of materials, and a few names. Borl's chirurgeon background allowed him to recognize some of the components as used for preservation and medical alchemy, but the quantities indicated alternative uses. About now, the hunchbacked serving girl canted at the two thieves. Answering in the positive, the party was invited to meet in the back. Once there, Solange Fiorentino revealed herself, and asked what the party was up to, as they were not known to the Thieves' Guild. They described their task and Roman shared the ledger. Solange looked at the reagent list with some interest, and identified the list of names as known 'resurrectionists,' or grave-robbers. It seemed that the rumors were correct.
Solange offered a contact with the Sewer Patrol as a possible alternative access. Poker vehemently vetoed this route, as she was small, and snack sized for potential sewer crocodiles. No sense of adventure...
Ok then, we go in through the street level. There was a bit of discussion on at what stage on the process to set the place on fire. Probably after the necromancer was caught/questioned, or place vanquished. But we'll leave our options open.
It was determined that Borl would pose as a fellow necromancer interested in joining resources with Mitras. In this scheme, Burl would be made up to appear dead as proof of Borl's skills (yes, the character generator provided two almost identical names). As the city's lanterns were lit, and businesses began to close down, the party entered the Wine-seller's. Mitras and Gaz were putting up tables, and apologized that it was after hours. Borl hinted that he was interested in a business proposition. After some resistance, he mentioned that the party had the secret ledger, and that he was interested in a partnership. Mitras invited the party to sit as Gaz pulled closed a gate, shielding them from passers-by before disappearing into the back. Ok, what do you bring?
Borl revealed "Zombie Burl." Burl made an excellent show of dead-ness. But not quite good enough. Inspecting the dwarf, Mitras noted that Burl smelled of fish, rather than death. Oops.
His turn, as Mitras showed off his own handiwork.
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It was on... Burl came back to life and slashed Mitras. His spell failed, as did the lumbering undead ogre's blow. Back and forth, as the party chipped away at the ogre and Mitras. Mitras disabled Burl with a Ray of Pain as Poker's crossbow string snapped. She hid behind a table, but not before the ogre spotted her. It mashed the table, and the unfortunate halfling behind it. Theo critically failed his stabilization attempt, and instead gave Poker last rites... About now, Borl threw the gate open, yelling and waving at the ogre. It followed and the mage darted away from it as he called for the city guard. An alarm whistle and running feet were heard.
Roman did in the necromancer and the party caught their breath. The city guard ran by, pursuing the ogre. Except one, a goblin fighter. Who was very interested in understanding why a local businessman was dead.
(In the interest in getting Claire back into the game, I handed her Azyad, goblin fighter. With a 'wanted' background and flexible morals, he was quickly swayed to join the party's raid.)
Down to the cellar. Fortunately, Poker had shared the secret door access, and the party continued into the dark (torch timer on). They found the catacombs, and Borl located several casks of necromantic reagents. About now, Gaz Hamati revealed himself, shouting for the guardian skeletons to attack. Three skeletons reinforced with metal plates attacked the party. Borl's mage armor worked, but his burning hands fizzled. Somewhere during this, Theo remembered he could turn undead, but the signal to his deity was weak... More whacking and stabbing, and Burl went to one hp. Theo's god didn't answer his cure light wounds request, either. Borl magic missiled Hamati as he fled into the sewers.
Finally, it was quiet. The party cleared out cash, necromancy volumes, and an idol. On their way out, the prosciutto and several bottles of good wine were pilfered. The wine garden suffered an unfortunate fire, and the local fire brigade found that the good proprietor had unfortunately succumbed in the blaze...
The party reported back to Solange that the deed was done. Of course, she'd heard that an undead ogre had emerged from the sewers, requiring a response by the city guards. How interesting. And such a tragedy to hear that the wine-seller's had burned. Father Anselmo accepted the death god idol as proof that the necromancer was rooted out, thanked Theo for his service, and provided healing for injured members of the party. Borl "lost" the necromancy volumes...
DM Notes:
That was a very fun session. We had five players with different gaming backgrounds who all grabbed onto their characters and played them out. I hadn't expected a direct confrontation with Mitras as a potential avenue, so played it up on the fly, as one does. The session worked out to probably 2/3 RP and 1/3 combat-exploration. A good balance for a city adventure, where gathering intelligence can be a large part of the resource collection.
Having a growing quiver of scenarios thanks to the campaign never hurts. It was fun to take a new party to Chirath, and to revisit the wine-seller's with a low-level party where the risk was relatively high. And of course, we had an appropriately gruesome PC death.
We had our regular Shadowdark game last night (Monday). No one died, but appropriate to various demises, I wanted to share Paul's assessment of Elinar's recent death and campaign deaths in general here:
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