Ormegrand ... From the Fire

It was a normal evening, early in the spring, at the Half-Cask Inn. The inn, a way station of sorts a couple days from Bertill in the West and a couple days from Scawic in the East, was slow much as it was during the winter and early spring months though as the weather improved the location became a reliably busy stop for travelers through the area.

Inside the inn's owner, Slonnie, tended bar while his sons Quinnzly and Blazer went about chores. The barmaid served the few patrons that were there that evening, a merchant travelling towards Keford with 4 large casks of his special apple ale and those he had hired to protect the shipment. Among those hired were a half elf who found himself rather at home in the wilds named Aidan, a dwarf named Garek, a worshipper of Heironeous named Jeff, and a elven bard who tagged along on the journey named Laurien.

The evening was another forgettable one and the night was beginning to wind down when suddenly the door burst in, broken from its hinges. A large orc, missing his left ear and with a heavily scarred face, rushed in followed by a number of others. Sitting near the doors the travelers had nearly no time to react to the vicious and violent attack. Chaos ensued...

As the sun rose on the next morning those within the inn began to stir. The crackling sounds of a fire and the heat were immediately noticable, even before they began to open their eyes. When they did however they could see that the inn had been set on fire and was quickly becoming engulfed in flames. Knowing they only had moments to get out they checked on others, waking those still alive but finding the merchant and the barmaid dead. They then grabbed what belongings they could quickly and rushed outside.

For what seemed like an eternity but was actually only moments the seven of them stood looking at the inn burning to the ground, the fire leaping about the building. Soon however one of them noticed the good they were protecting had fallen from the broken wagon parked within the open stables next to the inn, an area where the fire was just now approaching. The horses that had pulled the wagon were either taken or had ran off, however a bit further in Aidan's wagon still sat with mules ready to go.  Moving quickly they rushed over and began moving the still working wagon and mules out while getting the three casks that were still intact away from the fire. While doing so Jeff noticed a small book laying on the ground partially under the broken merchant's wagon.

After grabbing it and moving off a distance, and with what else could be saved from the fire moved away, he looked inside to find that it appeared to a journal of the business transactions. As he thumbed through the pages a leaf sheet of paper fell out. It appeared to be a letter to "Dear Sara", but having other things to deal with at the time it was folded up again and placed back in the book.

Looking back at the burning inn sorrow and anger definitely set in for the father and sons who had worked and lived there for so many years, meeting a number of travelers and in some cases learning much from them, especially for Quinnzly who had befriended a mage that passed through from time to time and gotten him to begin teaching him the magical arts. With nothing left to do but leave it behind and move on the merchant's guards decided to continue on their way even without the merchant who had hired them still living. Slonnie looked about and quickly found the tracks of the orcs that had attacked the night before clearly heading north and stood pondering them a moment before being asked if they wished to travel with them by Laurien. With a last longing look at their home for the past fifteen plus years he agreed and they set off to the East.

It was the evening of the second night when they first saw Scawic ahead and with night falling upon them they set about finding an inn.  The first they came to was called the Ten Hawks where they stopped ... all but Quinnzly who continued on looking for another inn.  He would eventually find another, the Princess's Sack, and found that it was almost more of a brothel than an inn but he got himself a room anyway and went to bed.  Back at the Ten Hawks the rest of them ate and got rooms, many of them heading to bed, while Slonnie and his other son sat at the bar and had a couple drinks. While sitting there they heard a pair of older gentlemen talking about a farmer who was having trouble with some wolves lately.

Deciding to talk to the men as a group Slonnie set off to find his other son, quickly doing so and getting him to return to the "nicer" inn with him. When they return they find the rest of the group speaking with one of the older gentlemen who turns out to be the farmer in question. The wolves have apparently been grabbing his sheep with some regularity of late and while he can't offer them much he does offer the small sum of five gold he has to his name. With an agreement in place, and a bit too much ale in the man, he tells them that the next morning he will lead them to his farm.

As the sun arose on the next day, and after a bit of quick supply gathering, they are off on the road with the farmer. When they arrive at his small farm he tells them that the wolves come from the forest to the south and they set off, Slonnie leading the way as he moved quietly through the trees.  He soon finds a trail but finds that it is mixed with small humanoid footprints as well.

Following it he soon sees what appears to be a rock mound with an entrance, perhaps a wolves' den, but it is guarded by two lizardlike humanoid creatures. He stops and motions at the others but as they begin to advance the noise of their armors mixed with the crunching on the forest floor alerts the kobold's to the presence of others and one yells into the cave.  With surprise lost the party begins to rush forward towards the cave, Slonnie getting near but hiding by a log. As they do a number of kobolds and wolves rush from the cave with two kobolds riding wolves.

Slonnie, taking initiative joins one of his sons in the rush ahead and plants his dagger square in the throat of one of the kobold riders, taking it clean from the back of the beast and leaving it dead on the ground.  A lengthy and bloody battle ensued with many of the party suffering bites and bruises from wolf and kobold alike, while also slowly picking off the small kobold clan and their "pets". While some in the party began to grow weak from wounds they sustained they were winning and the kobolds knew it and those few that were left turned and ran. The wolves pressed the attack however, driven to a frenzy from the battle, but soon they were dropped as well.

After wrapping their own wounds and a quick search of the wolves' den they gathered the wolves' tails and ears and skinned the beasts as they rested. They even spoke of taking the ears of the kobolds but in the end left them. Upon returning to the farm they were thanked by the farmer who offered to have them join for lunch and paid them, and upon being asked agreed they could sleep in his barn that night.

The next morning they set off again. As morning neared the next day Laurien, on the final watch, heard a muffled noise coming from the nearby forest. Not able to make out much and with dawn near he waited for the others to wake ignoring the noise, even after hearing it again. When they awoke a few of the party decided to enter the woods to check it out while the others remained with the wagon. After some searching they found a man tied to a tree. He appeared near death. After checking him over and being unable to wake the man they carried him back to the others and placed him in the wagon. After a short time of trying to wake him they decided they should continue on.

Near the end of their rest that night the man began to wake though he obviously remained in very bad, and weak, shape. He told them that he became tied there by another group who had slaughtered those he traveled with, though he wasn't sure where those bodies were, He said the two groups had a difference of opinions that led to a fight and that the other group which consisted of a handful of humanoids including one very large he thought must certainly be an ogre, a tattooed mage, and a holy man, argued over what to do with him ... with the mage suggesting they just get rid of him and the holy man insisting they take him prisoner. In the end with the group not wishing to take a prisoner the holy man agreed he would allow them to tie the man to a tree but not to kill him...


****Director's commentary****
This was the first game I have ran in a long time and I definitely feel I could have done a lot better ... getting into character more, being more descriptive, and so on ... but overall everyone had fun and that's the important part. With time I'll get better at running things just as all the new members, who were unsure of what to do slowly began to get more comfortable jumping into things. Even the most experienced player at the table is playing a class he's never played (and one that was very rare in our games) so he has some growing pains as well as he learns his character.

As for the story itself I think with a newer group they are more comfortable with the combat side of things than the story side so for a bit things may be a bit more combat heavy than they will be later on. Eventually I want this to develop into a long lasting story with important and memorable places and NPCs ... and have a very ambitious and massive story arc(s) planned.

The beginning of the story, to put everyone together, was a bit forced I'll admit but with so many new people at the table I wanted a way to push them all together and form some sort of bond right away. The orc attack will be the only time I set the outcome of such a conflict as anytime the PCs are involved I want them to be able to act and react ... and perhaps I should have in this case as well but in the end it was a way to push them all together and worked. It could also come back to be a story point should they ever wish to try to rebuild the inn ... for retirement or base of operation or whatever reason they many have.

Some readers may get the Easter egg thrown in with the man tied to the tree and the group that did it ... something from one of my very early days of playing that my first group did. Don't worry though readers, I have no intent (at least for now) of bringing those characters that we played all those years ago into this world and story.