I will borrow Wes's manner of posting by posting the character info on a separate post and then describing each adventure in a separate post. At times in the future, this may become rather difficult, though, because I kind of want to escape the general campaign "architecture." What I mean by this is, there may be reoccurring elements which may totally unravel the "module" effect, thus rendering adventure goals kind of hazy at best, but I suppose we will see what developes. I hope you enjoy.
Ravage
Ares (Male human N Ftr2/Bbn1): A quiet warrior who hails from the Gnarley Wood. He seeks to find his father's murderer and avenge his death.
Galandiel (Female elf N Rog3): An observant elf from the Elven Kingdom of Celene.
Xinna (Female human CN Sor3): Was an abandoned child who was brought to Greyhawk and raised in the magical arts.
Old characters (deceased, missing, etc.):
Orion (Male elf N Rgr1): A stoic elven woodsmen.
Valanthe (Female elf N Rgr1): An elven woodsmen.
Marley Quartermoon (Female half-elf N Dru1): A "hippy" who loved the natural world and sought to protect it with her powers.
Originally posted by cwslyclgh
awesome
I just couldn't stand the peer pressure anymore
I had to post because a lot of everyone else's posts have spurred my imagination and desire to run my current game and I would love chance to just have it posted and hopefully inspire other people to post there games also. I would love to see more threads like this.
They immediately arrived and after doing a little socializing in the local inn, learned that the constable, Tristoff, was looking for some able bodied adventurers to look into this threat to the local economy.
So they ambled over to the barracks to speak to Tristoff and discovered that local militia could not be spared due to normal troubles of living in this area of the Domain of Greyhawk and that some brave, strong souls were therefore needed.
The PCs immediatley set up the road towards the Gnarley, which was a about a days ride to the north. They set up camp once and the next day they entered the shadowy forest. Not long on the road inside, they soon discovered the recent remains of carts and several dead bodies. The rangers searched the area for signs of the attackers and found a hidden trail going off the road deeper into the forest. Also, there were tracks of many booted feet. The trail lead to a long ruined keep, about a half days hike from the road.
The keep was just a husk of what it once was and much of it was overgrown and flooded moat surrounded the whole structure. It was obvious that the keep was still in use, however, because some logs that had crudely been lashed together formed a bridge across the moat. The party was promptly attacked by a large snake once they tried to cross the bridge. Being startled in the first place, the snake fled into the water of the moat once it was wounded--it was nearly killed by the swipe of Orion's blade.
Once the chracters passed the outer walls, they were immediately beset by a hail of arrows that more often than not missed their mark, but were a threat none the less. The arrows were coming from a small grove of trees that had grown wild within the keeps walls. As the party tried to spot their snipers, they heard calls come out of the trees, and they spotted a group of goblins take off runnig from behind some cratesd off in the distance to their right. They hustled to a spot benind the small grove. The party, not being able to spot those who were sniping them, were forced to withdraw to the safety of the wall. As they withdrew, a few goblins, believing they had the PCs on the run, dropped from the trees to run down these "vile" elves. The party shot down their goblin pursuers from the safety of the wall, and then retreated to the Gnarley to camp for the night and rest a little bit.
During the night, their sleep was interrupted by a giant monitor lizard out hunting in the dark. The PCs managed to wake fend of the lizard, which after recieving a number of wounds retreated into the night. The party continued their gaurd rotation and continued to rest, with no more encounters.
(to be continued)
They decided to inspect the cargo and found that these were goods that had been bound for different areas in the Flanaess. This must be the cargo that had been pillaged along the road into and out of the Gnarley.
Off in the distance, more to the center of the keep, could be seen a structure whose upper story had collapsed but a door could still be made out allowing entry to the lower level. The party decided to go and rest so as to memorize additional spells. On the way out they glimpsed inside on of the many ruined towers and the glint of silver and gold caught their eye. They, of course, couldn't resist the lure of treasure and Orion made the decision to barge into the ruined tower. He wasn't prepared for the giant wolf spider that jumped down to attack him.
Its legs could have easily wrapped around their bodies many times, and its fangs gleamed like swords as it lunged towards Orion. The party decided to flee back into the woods, but they didn't count on the spider being such a persistant hunter. It chased them across the bridge into the forest, easily tailing them. The heroes were forced to confront it, and confront it they did. While Orion chopped away at it with his sword, Valanthe and Marley threw oil on the arachnid and lit it ablaze. It did some damge to Orion, but that wasn't enough to do any real harm before the spider died. The party then rested before going back to the keep.
The party went straight for the structure they had seen the day before. They were a little wary of the condition of the ceiling but proceeded none the less. Orion spotted tracks going down a side corridor easily, but Valanthe discovered a secret door in the wall straight ahead. After a bit of deliberation, they decided to take the secret door which opened up into a short corridor. They silently crept down the corridor which lead to a room that a large group of goblinoids were lounging around in. They seemed to be milling about, playing games, chattering in their foul language, and generally abusing one another. Their seemed to be one rather large goblinoid in charge, a hobgoblin, and he was wearing some fine equipment.
The heroes backed away quickly and tried to come up with an attack plan. There plan was to charge in, swords swinging and spells flashing, and hopefully catch the goblins by surprise, unfortunately, Marley beat everyone to the punch a little bit and foiled the rest of the party's surprise actions.
The ensuing melee involved the heroes being surrounded by goblins while the large hobgoblin released arrow after arrow. The hobgoblin made to flee, but upon seeing the invaders falling easily to his goblin cohorts, he decided to stay to offer additional support.
Sadly to say, the party went down. Valanthe stayed up the longest, valiantly fighting to the last of her breath.
A couple of weeks later, Tristoff hired additional adventurers (Ares, Galandiel, Xinna) to investigate the disappearance of the previous characters, and help put a stop to these raids an merchant caravans.
This new group arrived to discover the fate of the would be heroes, and fought the goblinoids, slaying all the goblins and capturing the hobgoblin. They learned from the hobgoblin, Dirk Bloodaxe, that he and his gang of goblins were rogue humanoids from the Blackthorn tribe, and they were raiding the caravans for profit and plunder. Dirk was brought back to Phlandish, where he was promptly hanged. The characters were welcomed as the champions of Phlandish, having saved a number of peoples' future income, and a feast was planned in their honor at the local tavern, which they humbly accepted.
One of these people was Thalius Goodheart, and his partner, Ilvar id Thel. Thalius was an middle aged man that liked to carry his white pet cat with him. Thalius was a local merchant who said that the heroes saved his business and he appreciated their hard work. He gave them a pouch full of silver coin and said that he may be able to find some work for them if they desired and pay them even more coin.
Later in the evening, when the tavern was mostly vacant, but before the PCs left, an older man approached them, constantly casting looks over his shoulder. He spoke with the PCs and said that he needed their help on a personal matter and would like to meet with them if they were willing to help him. Xinna said that they would be willing to discuss this with him, and the man, Angus, was willing to meet with them the next day. He asked them to meet him at his place of business, that of the Moneylender. Angus then took his leave.
With that, the PCs decided to make some final farewells and depart for the night. As they stepped out into the night to head back to their inn, they startled a white cat that had been perched in the windowsill of the tavern. It arched its back and hissed, then took off running into the night. The heroes thought nothing of it and took off back to their inn.
The next morning, the characters awoke and readied themselves to go see Angus. They crossed the street to the Moneylender and went inside, but were not prepared for what they found. Everything was overturned. Papers were scattered everywhere and furniture was knocked aside. It looked like there had been a heavy brawl. While the girls tried to figure out what happened, Ares began to right furniture, and beneath a desk, he found Angus. Angus lay there in a pool of his own blood, slain by a sword wound. Xinna immediately took off towards the barracks to get Tristoff.
(To be continued)