CoD 1: Session 10: Hand in first missions

 Pre-scene Notes

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Scene setup/conflict: 

Hand back mission, but too late and both Governor’s Office and Trader’s House closed.

Interrupt scene: Remote event, Persecute Extravagance. The extravagance can be the Rose faction as they are rich merchants, and the persecute I guess can be the Governor trying to use the Blue Horizon incident to throw shade at her operations, as the party’s predicament could be made into a mountain or a molehole. This can also be why Rose had given out compensation to the party so easily, apart from goodness of her heart, as an attempt get the party on her side early.  

Scene: 

At the Rose Garden, Elodia was nursing a headache. She tried her best to parry Banquo’s earlier assault regarding the Blue Horizon, but considering she only lucked out to have heard the news pre-emptively from those adventurers at the Cliff’s Edge, she had very little time to prepare. She had ordered for her people to find out what had happened to the ship and crew, but drew nothing so far from the Dockers. She knew the Governor still needed the Rose’s resources to offer shipping to adventurers here for now, but who knew how much that arrogant governor can squeeze that capacity in the future with this. There was apparently still one passenger missing and she could well be prosecuted for unsafe handling of the travellers in the worst case scenario. She was just glad at least three got here alive. She looked up when her assistant entered the room, as it would only be an urgent request at this hour.

“My lady, it seems like those adventurers you’d met at the tavern are indeed lucky stars for us. They are currently waiting outside with the surviving crew of the Blue Horizon. It seems they have quite the story.”

“Really? That’s great news Langston, please let them in right away.” Elodia straightened herself and put some papers in her desk drawers.

The party with Helena came into the study, the tied-up crew having already been entrusted to the Rose’s bodyguards at the door to the estate. Elodia’s circular study actually gave a similar feel to  Osran’s, although instead of arms, there were more merchant goods and artefacts about the shelves and desks. It was clear during the day, the study would have been teemed with identifiers and couriers. It was not outwardly more opulent, a bit contrary, but the arcane lamps across the walls signalled otherwise. 

Map from PogS Props

“It seems like we meet again, Filli was it? And Zar, and Yankovic.” Elodia turned to  Langston, “Please can you bring our guests something from the kitchen? I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure to meet your latest addition.”

“Heathcliff… No, Helena le Barge.” She managed an awkward curtsy, revealing her real gender. “I am the new captain of the Blue Horizon… saying that, I’m a captain with no ship and only two crewman of no character.”

Elodia’s eyes lit up, “What happened? From what Filli and the others said and my investigations, the Blue Horizon left the Capitol over a week ago per our chartership agreement.”

Helena regaled her tale of the events: A promising young navy recruit but a season ago, who  had her gender discovered and kicked out, then the downtrodden girl serving as a deckhand for a greedy and incompetent captain. Out of food and lost, with a damaged ship and dead captain after the party’s escaped, she was lucky to have won the cannibals’ revolt and survived to wash up at the island. It was only her gender again abruptly revised the prisoner roles between her and the party. 

Elodia sighed, “Those men you’d brought in, I’ll interrogate them and send them to the Governor right away in the morning. To think they tried to eat the passengers, and crew, that is inconceivable! Also from what I’d found out, there was still one passenger missing? Have you by any chance ran across her?”

“I’m sorry, but I haven’t seen any others. Absurdly, the crew and I had thought we were washed up onto a deserted island.”

“And what of the fog? Do you by any chance know the cause?”

“I don’t know for certain, but it was certainly not due to natural weather patterns,” Helena reasoned. “I had heard tales of strong sea creatures, or tribes of them, hindering sea journeys since times of old. Giants also have stealth seafaring capabilities. As for other magical or godly means, that may also be a possibility. If it were actually something to do with normal currents, tides, or sailing by the stars, I may be able to comment. However, on the arcane and naturalism, it is beyond my expertise. If there were more information on nearby sea creatures however, if I had encountered them, I may be able to support in order for future voyages to the island to avoid the Blue Horizon’s tragedy again.”

“Yes this fog does worry me, Helena. It’s the last thing we want to build a reputation of adventurers coming here not surviving the trip.” Langston at this moment returned back with food and drinks. He whispered something in Elodia’s ear. “My assistant had corroborate with the prisoners and along with the information we have, everything seem to align with Captain Le Barge’s statement. Langston, draft a statement of the events and escort the prisoners to the Governor in the morning.”

While Helena blushed at the title, Elodia’s assistant simply nodded.

“I do believe the Rose family is in need of someone more savvy in judging the reliability of our chartered fleet,” Elodia stretched out her hand to Helena. “If you don’t mind Helena, will you please aid us? It is not captaincy of a ship, but once we have the route secured between Cavesmuth and the Capitol, it would be least I can do to entice you with a new command.” 

Weird Elf’s Preception check was a 20, and Insight check at 17, both at advantage from being helped by others (Filli being proficient at the former and Zar the later). Mostly because of the high rolls, but because of the rolled interrupted remote scene, as a GM, I would tell the party all the implications of this exchange.

The party of three exchanged looks through the conversation as they ate and recovered from their previous battle and hike back. It was clear to them that Helena was falling hook-line-and-sinker to Rose’s recruitment. Someone of Helena’s talents were indeed much needed if they wanted to continue ferrying adventurers to the Cave, and Rose now had the key witnesses to spin the story as they liked to the Governor’s faction on the Blue Horizon incident. Basically, Elodia’s crisis adverted, with the addition of an extra help. It also suited Helena’s motivations as well, as it was clear she would want to continue seafaring, and now can do in the open with her gender providing her crew and employees did not cause problems. However, considering the leader of the Rose estates here was a woman, it was a lot more likely this was possible in oppose to the navy. It was basically a win-win situation. The only thing that was unresolved was the missing Stella, which I guess both factions would now sincerely put resources in to find her, much to Filli’s relief. 

“Please, I insist if you can all stay as guests in the Rose Gardens tonight as it is already so late. Contrary to the name, because this manor is still so newly built, we are still so disorganised with the running of the Trade House’s overspilling onto here. Please do excuse us for any discomforts, but I would hope it is acceptable.”

“At least it was saving us on one night’s gold for the tavern,” Zar pointed out and the others agreed to stay.

“More than that my good sir. The three of you had been my luck charm every time since I’d met you.” Elodia clapped her hands together in seeming delight and Langston whispered something in her ear. “I hear from my assistant as well you had accepted a request from the Trades House earlier as well? I believe it was to retrieve young Miss Belle’s necklace at the beach?”

“Yes, we do have it.” Zar looked at Helena, and without provocation, Helena took the necklace out onto the table.

“Delightful! Such efficiency. Miss Belle is a friend of mines and she would be very happy to see it returned. I believe the Trades House is way past its closing time, but I would be happy to return it for you.” Elodia made a motion and Langston went to fetch a gold purse. “Also, I believe those are the crabs that ·Viscount Estiafan was in love with us well. As the Governor’s Offices are also closed for the night, I believe I can also help with those.”

Considering the crew members had eaten some of the defeated crabs previously, there were only ten crabs for return. Along with the necklace, Elodia handed over to the party 300 gold pieces in total, double what the quest rewards would have been.

With that, Elodia asked Helena to stay to talk more about her new job with the Rose family, while the party were led by Langston to rest for the night in separate guests rooms within the manner.

Obviously this is the long rest, but as per my house rule, this is the perfect time for the party to level up. As a GM, I would also encourage this is when PCs can share their background information.

Zar asked, having seen some mechanise lying around, whether he could buy anything in the Rose Garden. Langston said magical items were a push, but considering the favour they had done for the Roses, the party could make a list of what they wanted and he would do his best to comply and deliver them in the morning any items they wished to procure. At this note, just as quickly as Zar had got the gold from the mission, his knick-knack habits caught up to him, and he spent most of it on miscellaneous adventuring gear such as ball bearings, climber’s kits, or disguise kits that he had either missed earlier today or did not have the gold for.

He was also able to convince Yankovic to spend some of his gold on the obsession, saying he was already carrying most of the stuff and they were all going into the unknown Cave together tomorrow. This miraculously finished Zar’s wishes of having what he considered as a comprehensive set of adventuring gear for now. Weird Elf also asked for a lute, claiming maybe he could spread the words of Xanthia if they travelled to any strange lands with a hymn or two. 

Considering he was already holding onto things for Zar, Filli also asked Yankovic to hold onto the various tool sets he now had enough gold to procure. Yankovic asked Filli to join the church of Xanthia in exchange, but Filli quickly suggested another way to decide. Challenging Yankovic to a game of dragonchess, Filli narrowly won and the dismayed cleric agreed to be the temporary pack animal for the other two.

I’d thought this was a bit of fun to insert while rearranging encumbrance amongst the party and the shopping trip (Zar established as a bit of a pack rat from before). Filli won the INT roll by 1 in a PvP skill check on the dragonchess, as both did not have proficiency. As a GM, this gave good opportunity for relationship building between the PCs and keeping the party adventuring together.

During the game, Yankovic noticed Filli’s ring and asked about it. The wooden ring was made from mistletoe, with a unique looking gemstone set in the middle that Yankovic knew must be of high rarity. He said it was his parents from their old adventuring days. He recounted one year, his mother being a druidic warrior and predicted a large flood was going to befall the hamlet they had stayed in. It would have washed away the whole of the small village if it were not for his dad’s contraptions. As a reward for Filli’s help in making the contraptions and saving the village through the evacuation, his parents gave him the ring as a spell focus. 

I find the DND 5e hand ruling cumbersome with spell focus for different classes, items, shield etc. As a GM, I think allowing for one spell focus to cover multiple classes (I plan for Filli to eventually multiclass) is reasonable. The ring is basically a weak version of the Imbued Wood Focus common magical item from Eberron, but without the elemental resistance and is a ring.

Yankovic’s eyes glossed over a little through the game, as if behind his eyes, the dragonchess board was a battlefield of blood and sweat. The holy symbol of the Red Princess chained on his wrist seemed to get hotter as the game progressed, and he could feel his strategies taking shape. A fire burnt in him as pieces were kicked off the board, and he made his moves faster and faster. Filli saw a bit of change in his opponent as he talked, but as the topic moved to how he looked forward to the adventures and battles ahead, the two of them felt their adrenaline circle around the taking of the pieces. In the final move of the game, Filli set up a hail mary checkmate, instructing his Dragon to burst through Yankovic’s Princess’s defence. 

“Yes! What a passionate move!” Although having lost the game, Yankovic could feel a zealous surge of power within him after the buzz of the game. “War and warfare goes hand in hand, and thank you Filli for the game and your story. It’s so great to see a youngster brimming with battle courage and I am certainly in the mood for whatever the Cave dive will bring tomorrow! I’m just saying Filli, you’re a prime candidate for the Church of Xanthia!”

Filli hastily made an excuse and fled. Yankovic, still feeling empowered after the game and closer to his deities even if it was only battle on a dragonchess board, added to his shopping list for Langston to upgrade of his medium armour to heavy, and carried out his Xanthian ritual and prayers before he retired for the night. 

At this point, I had also realised Yankovic was wearing heavy armour while Clerics only start off with medium. His subclass is Priest of Zeal, which does get heavy armour proficiency at level 2. This could have changed a lot of previous battles I guess, but no point in worrying about it now and so I just changed this gold amount to reflect this.

Zar had excused himself during the dragonchess game and went back to his room. Having almost died today under the claws of the Crab King if not for his orcish endurance, Zar fell to an uneasy sleep despite the soft bed and feather pillows. His half-conscious thought  drafted back to Stella’s fortunate telling. He had no dealings with any double-handed greatswords, but if he were awake, he would see the green glow coming from the rusty longsword he covered over with a spare blanket. In Zar’s dream, the familiar voice spoke to him once again. The silky voice that kept his nightly rests perturbed but the only help he had back at the order. Zar knew it was the poisonous silver tongue of a snake, but it slithered out again in his hour of need.

“You need me Zar. You need my power.” It repeated the words, the simple offer as it did when Zar had been locked up. “All you need to do, is take up the sword. Take it up. And strike.”

Zar can see himself again, his hand wrapping around the old handle, its worn leather barely hanging on. Zar tried to stop his former self in his dreams, but he screamed and he shouted, but it were all futile. He ran towards himself, reaching out, harder and further, stretching his arm even if it dislocated his shoulder. 

He woke up, right arm outstretched, and a ghastly shape of a green orc hand manifested itself in the air above him. He was drenched in sweat, and still with an outstretched hand, closed its grasp. The eerie green Mage Hand and its nails did the same. Zar’s left hand reached up and held the amulet he wore at all times around his neck with a small diamond in the middle. He tried to remember the face of the person who gave him the necklace, and the green hand faded into the night. 

These were just favour text for levelling up with my own homebrew rule, but for novelization, it gave reason for the level up. The amulet is a Favour of an Admirer from the Gladiator’s background feature, and again I’m using it as a combined class arcane focus. Zar is going to the a paladin/warlock multiclass, and although taking paladins to start should the best way to go, I’m not min-maxing for the strongest character. It made a lot more story sense to go warlock first as Zar’s history gets uncovered. Yankovic still has a character thread to find this out after all.

I had written a bit more considering novelization as this would be a good place for background info, and actually a way to raise the tension of the character’s internal conflicts. I revealed a bit more of Zar’s here, but Yankovic’s still need more words. It’s still early days so I feel not enough is really known of the PCs yet.

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Filli woke up in the morning with his set of new tools already laid out on the desk in his guest room. He walked past the metallic arm-looking contraption he had tinkered with last night, and tried his hand at the tools that were much more refined than the well-used ones back at his home in the hamlet. He spotted a nearby jar and tried his hands at Magical Infusions with his new tools. By the time a knock came from the door, Filli had completed as many infusions as he could from theoretical knowledge he previously learnt from his father. Pouring the acid produced from his infused Alchemy Jug into the many flasks he had prepared  for oil from his backpack, he opened the door with his foot, thinking it was Yankovic here to realise his promise of carrying his craft tools for him. 

Instead at the door was a sheepish looking Helena.

The paragraph was just to address the relatively complicated Artificer features. The arm is a precursor to him picking the Battle Smith subclass later, a key feature to his build. 

Helena had cleaned up and the night of rest did her complexion a world of good. Her unkept short black hair still stews about her face, but she was now wearing a new set of lighter feminine clothes. She masked her unease with a cough and a good morning. From the new rapier on her waist, it seemed like Elodia really wanted her to be posted quick to manage the Roses’ vessels.

“Thank you for yesterday. You could have tarnished my reputation like the other crew members, and although I was not part of the men who had wanted to resort to cannibalism, I know it didn’t look good.”

“I’m just glad you were able to land on your feet.” Not having much experience talking to other young adult of the same age, Filli stammered after a period of awkward silence, “I hope your new job goes well for you.”

“It’s an amazing opportunity Lady Rose had given me,” Helena said. “I’ll definitely do my best. I’m pretty confident in my sailing skills and learnt a bit of cartography as well while I was in the navy.”

“We’d explored the town yesterday, the docks seemed to have many other sailors like you, and a pub that you may find interesting.” Filli genuinely suggested, considering he would want to visit an arcane lab if there were one in the town. 

“I’ve been to enough ports to know what sort of places they are,” Helena replied a bit exasperated, much to Filli’s ignorance and confusion on what he had said to upset her. She recovered quickly, eyeing the Alchemy Jug in his hand, and went on to say, “Maybe after we both get ourselves established in Cavesmuth, we can grab a drink together at that pub then?”

“Um, yea sure,” Filli agreed. Avoiding another awkward silence, Helena bid goodbye, asking him to relay her thanks to Yankovic and Zar before leaving him to his Infused Items.

More paying off the altered scene’s inquire love prompt from the last scene by planting a seed. I didn’t have much plans to have an NPC on the shipping trade before, but now Helena’s been established, it may help with the thread on investigating the fog or other seafaring quests in the future. Upgrade her to a new key NPC also may means it lands on her in random rolls in future events, which may drum up some non-Cave related missions.

Considering the generally low Chaos Factor, I would want to raise it up again after this downtime. As a GM, this was a good indicator there could be too many RP sessions, but should gauge whether the table were enjoying it. Not saying RP is bad, just saying even in RP there should be conflicts, and combat should not be the only way to raise tension/chaos factor. 

Scene close-out:

• Chaos factor down to 4
• -party threads: Report on Blue Horizon, return necklace, acquire crab meat x10
• -party thread: PCs to buy all proficient tools/instruments
• -Zar thread: Complete adventuring gear collection
• ! party thread: update investigation of fog to be unnatural.
• ! NPC list: Blue Horizon crew updated to Helena Le Barge. Relationships updated.

Post-scene Notes

Thanks again for reading