Ormegrand - Catching the Reader Up

Before jumping into the activities of the last couple games I wanted to inform readers (whoever they may be) that my work and home schedules have been rather busy leading to little time for writing recaps. Thus this recap will be a condensed version of the last 3 sessions...

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Following the battle at the wagon the party continued on towards their next city on the road. Upon reaching it they visited a general goods store and attempted to sell the chests they had found, the chests containing what they would later find to be goods such as magical inks, spell components, and the like and each marked with a single white lily. The shopkeep however recognized the mark and sent his wife quietly out to find nearby guards.

After a quick discussion with the shopkeep the guards suggested they all speak at the local guard house. When they arrived they were each sepperated and the captain of the guard spoke with each of them, asking for their stories. When they all matched for the most part he then brought up how he had been informed by a woman that she was with the wagon when they were attacked by those matching their description and they were grilled further.

With no proof of any guilt or that their stories were not true, and only the word of another also implicated by the party to go on, the captain brought them all together again and in much the way of a "father figure" suggested what he thought was the right thing to do ... but alas they were free to do as they wished but his guard would be watching so they had best keep their noses clean.

When they left the guardhouse they returned to the merchant and while he was nervous and unsure they told him they just wished to return the goods to their owner if they could point the way. The merchant refused but told them he could reach out and have them met the next morning, again in front of the guard house.

When the morning came they saw an older gentleman in robes standing with two guards. While unsure of their story he was grateful for the return of what they had, and after they decided against trying to find the rest of his lost shipment, he rewarded them with some coin and went on his way.

After spending a bit of time to rest up they then continued up the coast to the Capital of Keford. Their first order of business was to seek out the Ogre's Arm Inn and deliver the ale they had been traveling with. The innkeep, sorry to hear of the merchant's death, told them he would send the payment along to the merchant's daughter but also pay them for their time and in addition gave them a room for the night.

The next morning as they decided to seek out the temples to inquire about the job exploring the new found ruins Aidan was approached by an urchin child who pressed a note in his hand. As they began to read, and with his payment in hand, the urchin ran off. The note seemed to be addressed to not Aidan but another, mentioning a double cross and how it was surprising he would show his face again and that two others mentioned would likely look to smash his face in if they saw him. It then went on to tell them to meet behind the Blue Ox at sunset.

Confused they decided to ignore the letter and continued to the temples where they met with a patron of Pelor and soon had agreed to seek out and explore the ruins, taking payment and potions up front to do the job. As they left they noticed what appeared to be a half-orc watching them from the alley, though he quickly disappeared and they headed north to leave the city for the area the ruins were said to be in.

Before they got out of the city however, while traveling through a seedier part of the town which was fairly empty during this part of the day, another small child not even a teen darted from one alley, grabbed a coin purse, and began for the other alley. As he ran however they caught his arm. As they discussed what they should do with him he wriggled free and went down the alley a ways and began taunting them. Finding it strange they began to look around, however what they looked for was well hidden and it wasn't until one of them began down the alley that the trap was sprung.

As the fight began the half-orc they had seen earlier came into the alley from the far end and told the child to flee while four other figures stood from their hiding spots behind and among the refuse in the alley. The half-orc proved to be a powerful fighter striking crippling blows against them until the bard used his magics to create a false sound of guards coming from up the street. With the guards seemingly approaching the half-orc told them he would see them again and the thugs ran.

Hurt and tired they decided to find an inn again and decided to head towards the docks once more though not to the inn they had stayed at the night before, somewhere closer instead. With no real familiarity with the town and no specific destination in mind they began walking and soon ahead they saw an inn. As they got closer, as luck would have it (or not), it would be the Blue Ox they stumbled upon. They stood discussing if they should see who was out back at sunset for a while and finally a pair of them went in to secure rooms while the others went to investigate ... though for a short while they had to deal with a drunken seaman, who would eventually enter the establishment, first.

Once out back a robed man spoke with Aidan, also mistaking him for "Madarius" and while he didn't believe him he told him that he could try to convince Gregor who was actually the one wishing to speak with him. After leading them to him he asked "what he had done with it", also not believing he wasn't the one they were looking for, but growing frustrated finally sent them off stating "she would kill them if their story was true or not" and that they should "deal with her before she found them", giving them an address and sending them away.

Returning to the inn they decided they would indeed check out this port warehouse in the morning to see what this woman wanted and see if they could clear things up, and the next morning they did in fact set off.

Upon entering the warehouse, a single structure at the end of a pier, the dwarf announced to the man and woman working inside "Madarius was here" and they excused themselves and entered a back room and almost immediately a well dressed woman came out, followed by a weasely looking man and the half-orc.  "I'm surprised you'd show your face here Madarius" she said. "Where is it?"

By this time Aidan had grown frustrated that no one believed him and gave quite a bit of attitude to the woman who then told him if he wouldn't cooperate he would die. The weasely looking one magically locked the doors behind them.

Slonnie asked her to wait, to explain what was going on, and she seemed surprised and asked "did he not tell you what he had done" and "what is he paying you". Slonnie, convinced Aidan wasn't the one she wanted, tried to convince her of such but she decided she wasn't taking chances and gave them a moment to discuss if they just wanted to hand him over or if they all wanted what would come.  As they discussed the dwarf said if Aidan didn't have what she wanted that proved it wasn't him, to which the woman questioned his intelligence as he could have it hidden anywhere. The dwarf, unhappy with that, then questioned her intelligence at which point she had enough and a battle began.

Things looked bleak for a while as the weasely man stepped forward and set some of them, and the shelves, on fire and the orc began to attack them viciously again. They also heard the movement of the other two and perhaps more in the back room still.  The fight went back and forth with the orc falling under the combined weight of the party's attacks only to be healed and then healed again by the woman who seemed to be in charge. At one point the wizard stepped forward and unleashed a rainbow like spell that caused two of them, plus one of his own, to collapse unconscious. The back and forth continued but suddenly battle could be heard from the back room as well.

At random points as the fire spread it appeared as if the battle could go either way and in fact things looked very bleak at one point with the dwarf nearly dying as well as the party's wizard while two others were still unconscious. Finally however, as the fire spread and different things started to pop, explode, or collapse, the unseen battle in the back room seemed to be catching up and taking the focus of the half-orc and woman. Soon with much of the building on fire and it spreading quickly, and the half-orc having fallen again, the woman looked up at 4 or 5 to 1 odds against here. Despite having not been wounded yet herself she found herself alone and decided to flee. As Slonnie gave chase he got to the door of the office area just in time to see her drop into a trap door.

The scene in the back room was one of the remnants of choas with nearly a dozen bodies laying about. As the fire continued to spread the warrior bent down inspecting the body of the half-orc, or more specifically his armor. He was determined to have it he first looked to take it off before deciding the fire wouldn't allow time for that so instead he would drag it. As he was inspecting it however the dwarf pushed him onto his face as he pushed through the blocked doorway so that he could go to try and start looting other bodies.  Seeing this, and having seen the dwarf stop to loot bodies while others were on the verge of death before, Slonnie decided it was time to teach a lesson and as he moved behind the dwarf and opened the trapdoor he snuck the dwarf's coinpurse off his belt.

With the fire engulfing the building the group began rushing to the door at the back with the wizard going to the trap door, all the while the warrior dragged the body of the fallen half-orc behind.  Slonnie and the bard were making their way up the pier towards onlookers as the wizard jumped into the water of the trap door. Pulling the orc's body was slow going so the dwarf moved to help but just at that time something within the building exploded. Aidan was blown out into the cold sea waters and while the warrior was able to grab part of the pier the half-orc and dwarf were also blown out to sea. However the warrior was almost blinded by the desire to have the armor the half-orc had worn and jumped in after it ... but as the dwarf struggle to stay above water he finally abandoned the armor and went to the dwarf's aid.

Before long guards and a nearby inkeeper from the onlookers had rushed onto the pier and had grabbed wooded rings at the end of ropes from spots along the pier and began helping to haul the struggling swimmers to safety ... all except for the wizard that is who stayed under the pier and swam to shore.

With everyone back on short the guards suggested they be taken to the temple district for care before they would be talked to by the city guards about what had happened here.

*****Director's commentary*****
I hadn't expected the group to basically go straight to the warehouse, something that would have been a much tougher fight if I hadn't have had help show up (which all fits within the story of what was going on but I won't say much here as there are a lot of unknowns by the party that still could come up and they may read this). As it was the fight was still very exciting and a couple rolls here or there could have been the difference between a TPK (total party kill) and everyone surviving as they did.

In fact at one point with two unconscious, the dwarf had fallen and stabilized rather than died (I have implemented a system where if you fall you begin making death saves each round and damage is an automatic failure ... 3 failures you die, 3 success you stabilize), Even after stabilizing he had part of a burning shelf fall on him forcing saves again and he had two failure before they could get a potion in him. The wizard also fell at one point and had two failures, one success, when he was finally force fed a potion. Slonnie was also under 5 hit points at this time but his opponent rolled 4-5 straight attacks under 7 and couldn't drop him before he was finally finished off.  Another failed death save here, a successful attack there, and it would have been very close to a TPK if it wasn't.

As is I need to remember these are all fairly new players so the RP side of things aren't as familiar to the players as a combat system would be. I spoke to them after the battle about being able to talk to others and try to seek out information. It may or may not have changed anything here but perhaps they could have asked around about the names in the note and maybe found out a thing or two before running into the warehouse.  I also had to remind the dwarf's player that he can't "retaliate" for the theft of his coinpurse as he didn't notice and noone else saw Slonnie sneak it from him. His character wouldn't know and it could have been lost in the fight or the water.

Overall the game is going very well and players are really starting to get more used to the game. It's only been a few sessions and they are still learning but it has been a lot of fun for all so far.  Admittedly I'd still rather be playing than running, trying to figure out the story and all that ... but it has been fun to run it as well and should only get better as DM and players alike get more and more used to things.

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.

An Adventure for the future of Ormegrand

Soon I will be starting a campaign that I will chronicle here. I will be running a game in my own home brewed world that is still evolving. The campaign will be ran for a friend and his two sons, as well as my two oldest step sons ... all of whom are relatively new to D&D. I will also be joined by one of the people who I had originally started playing with all those years ago.

I don't wish to give away too much about the story ahead of time, nor wish to bog anyone down with details about house rules or the like, so instead I invite you to read up a bit about the world as it currently is and join in future writings to watch the story unfold.

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The world of Ormegrand is like our own Earth in many ways. It rotates around a sun once every 361 days, with a tilt similar to Earth resulting in four seasons in most areas, polar caps and those near the equator of course seeing less change in climate from the change in seasons. 

Nearly every climate can be found somewhere on the planet, from desert to jungle to polar ice caps on thehalf a dozen or so continents, some larger and some smaller, that make up the planet. A handful of island chains are also scattered through the seas. 

Vinyamar is one continent (and is where players will begin) and is made up of many smaller nations. A continent of decent size it varies a good deal in landscape, having mountain ranges, forests, a large swamp area, and even a sandhills type area. There is also a fairly barren, large island, to the NorthEast. The people of the land also vary a fair amount not only in race but also in belief and outlook on life, and the kingdoms vary a good deal as well, but more will be divulged about the story and people as the story plays out.

While a common tongue is found through Vinyamar there are a number of dialects and a handful of other languages as well.

Around the planet rotates a singular moon names Selest. It is slightly larger than the earth’s moon and often shows a blue crystal like glow on and about the heavenly body. Some say that the moon is made of crystals and gases, others claim it holds true magical source about it. The glow itself does provide even a little light unless there is cloud cover, resulting in what appears a ghostly look upon parts or all of the moon depending on position in the sky compared to the sun. A great number of constalations can be found in the sky as well, ranging from dragons to ships to warriors among many others.

The Calendar is made up of 12 month, each consisting of 30 days. There are no weeks and time is kept in days of the month. The months also do not have names (for now ... again I'm working on this world even as we play) and are just referred to by which month it is … so you may hear the 5^th day of the 3^rd month referred to as just that. The one day that doesn’t fall within a month is the “Resetting Day”. The Resetting Day is the day when the old year ends and the new begins and is a time of celebration. In many ways it is like our New Years and Christmas combined, but compared to our calendar it would occur between March and April. Thus a new year begins with Spring and ends with Winter (or April through March compared to our calendar). There are a handful of other celebrations through the year as well but again, those will come up more through play (and as I develop the world more).