Ordinary Heroes II (Inactive)

Game Master Rhanloi Ehlyss

This game encourages more social interaction over direct combat; talking your way out of a fight, using stealth, or using intelligent strategy is preferred to front line confrontation as your characters are at a disadvantage. But most of all have fun and interject humor when it is due. This should be an entertaining game.

Background
As an ordinary resident of Daggermark, a medium-sized town in the River Kingdoms, being a Hero is the last thing on your mind today. But fate has a habit of really messing around with your plans…

The player characters in this campaign are commoners or adepts from the town of Daggermark, a walled town built against the side of a low hill with about 750 residents. There are about 20 farming hamlets within a day’s walk of Daggermark (15-20 miles), each of which has about five families of around 20 people. There are also some isolated farms and a few estates of minor nobility. In all, there are about 1,200 people dependent on the Daggermark market for goods they cannot make themselves, and who would retreat to Daggermark in case of an invasion.

All healthy residents in their young adult years are required to be a part of the militia. Even transients of the right age find themselves either training with the militia or asked to leave. Militia recruits are taught to ride and use a short spear. They are also issued one suit of studded leather armor. If the armor is ruined in any way, the militiaman must replace it. Spears are replaced for free. Militia duty is three days each month and usually consists of drills, street patrols, and guarding the gates and walls.

Character Creation:

Players will create a character using the NPC creation rules found at his link.

Races: Humans are the most numerous race in the game, but Daggermark is a fairly self-sufficient town with visitors from other regions. Half-elves, dwarves, halflings and other core races are allowed so long as you have an interesting back story. You may use the alternate racial traits from the Advanced Race Guide if desired. Featured and Uncommon races are not allowed.

Classes: All characters start as adepts or commoners. Adepts may only use the spells listed for this class, although they may attempt to learn any spells found in scrolls or spellbooks. All characters are considered proficient with a short spear, one additional simple weapon, and light armor (but not shields). This is mainly due to your militia training.

Ability Scores: All players will use Heroic NPC ability scores (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8) plus appropriate racial ability adjustments. You may choose the distribution of scores.

Alignment: Your characters can be any Neutral or Good alignment. No evil characters allowed.

Skills: As your characters have spent their lives working toward certain trades, they get one free rank in a profession or craft skill of your choice, and it will always be a class skill. Characters also get a +2 trait bonus to two additional skills relating to their profession/craft. These choices must be an integral part of your story.

Feats: Your character may have all racial abilities and one feat. Remember, humans receive an additional feat at 1st level.

Traits: Characters get two traits of your choice. They should relate to your background.

Starting Equipment: As the players are "Ordinary People" their starting gear will be scarce. Players start with 2 sets of clothing, a sack or old backpack, 3 days of rations, a place of residence with some furniture and supplies, and common artisan tools or general professional items (as agreed upon by the GM). Additionally, characters may have up to 25gp (roll 2d12+1) representing their life savings.

History and Geography:

The city of Daggermark got its name from an incident that happened about 400 years ago. A wagon master sent his son ahead of the family wagon one evening to locate a safe passage across the Shining River. The boy located a ford, but was surprised and attacked by a party of lizard men. The lad slew six of the creatures with his only weapon, a dagger, and held off the rest until reinforcements from the wagon arrived.

This may be pure fancy or exact truth or something in between. The dukes of Daggermark claim to be direct descendants of that boy on the ford. The arms of the duke are represented by a bloody silver dagger on a blue field.

Daggermark is a walled town built against the side of a low hill. The town wall also surrounds the castle of the duke of Daggermark. The wall protects the town and castle from periodic flooding. Most of the town’s buildings are built on the low ground below the hill holding the duke’s castle. The area surrounding the castle is almost entirely given over to the commons, where horses and cattle graze in times of siege and when the river floods the lowlands around the castle.

Generally, most of the buildings in the town are made of wood and thatch. However, since Derval Ironeater’s family brought their stone working skills to town a century ago, a number of people have built in stone. The duke replaced the last wood in his castle with stone, the wall towers were rebuilt in stone, and several important town buildings have been built or rebuilt in stone.

Most of the residences in the crowded living areas are still made of wood. Placement of these wooden buildings is sometimes rearranged due to the occasional fire. Fortunately, proximity to the river allows the Watermen’s Guild to quench fires quickly.

Here are some of the main buildings and areas you would know:

1. Barracks
After the invasion from Dragonspear Castle, the Council of Guilds decided that the town needed a central place for on-duty troops to stay, as well as a headquarters for the troops stationed in the town by Waterdeep. The barracks is a two-story construction with a new drill field now used by the militia, much to the relief of the tradesmen who were tired of having to tear down their stalls in the marketplace so the militia could drill.

2. Caravan Gate
This is the largest gate in the walls and is usually kept shut, opening only when a caravan is camped outside. There are two 24-foot towers flanking the gate with a walkway over the gate between them. The gate itself is 16 feet tall. The flanking towers have arrow slits covering the gate area on both stories.

3. Caravan Quarter
This is a section of wooden buildings, mostly hotels and shops, with a largely transient population. During the winter when the caravans aren’t moving, the quarter is virtually unpopulated. The permanent population in the quarter has traditionally consisted of the few demi-human residents of the city, mostly halflings, who are not attached to major merchant families.

4. Erastil's Temple
Brother Silas presides over this stone establishment not far from the farmers’ gate.

5. Cisterns
These tall stone structures are kept filled by the Watermen’s Guild. The water is used for the horses pastured on the commons and as storage in case of siege or fouling of the river water.

6. Commons
This area, which takes up almost half of the town, is kept purposely clear as an emergency pasture for the farmers’ cattle and sheep. Otherwise, the horses of the duke and the militia pasture here. The only buildings allowed in this area are the duke’s castle, Iomedae’s temple, the town stables, and the cisterns. By agreement with the duke, this is considered to be ducal property which he leases to the town.

7. Smitty’s Smithy
Smitty is a human blacksmith who specializes in household and animal care equipment. He is not a weaponsmith and knows it, although his son Hugo showed some promise as an armorer before he left for a life of adventure. He has a very nice trade in useful items and is very comfortable with his work.

10. Ducal Castle
The castle was based on the first building in Daggermark, but it has changed a lot since the old days. For a while, it was the only building, a simple wooden structure surrounded by a palisade fence. After it was burned down in an orc raid from the High Moor, the duke rebuilt in stone. He created a three-story stone keep on the hillside and surrounded it with a two-story stone wall. After the orc raiders were hunted down and destroyed, the people of the castle began building out- side the walls of the castle, eventually creating the town as it stands today. The ducal gate leads to the city and is always open. Inside the courtyard are the duke’s private parade grounds, his own blacksmith shop, and stables for his animals. The larder is well-stocked with preserved food, enough for a year’s siege.

11. Farmers’ Gate
This is the most used gate in Daggermark, as it is the closest to the fields outside of town. This gate is usually open, even at night, unless times are troublesome. The gate is built into a broad tower and has just enough room for one farm cart to enter at a time. The gate is about 10 feet tall.

12. Farmers’ Quarter
This is the section of town mostly occupied by the farmers who till the soil to the north of town. Some of them have small herds of cattle and sheep, while others have chickens in the back yard. This area is noisy and has a definite odor.

13. Farrels’ Fine Jewels and Apparel
Farrel’s is a large store, actually a branch of one of the Waterdeep trading companies. It acts as a middleman for interesting jewelry pieces coming through town, including magical ones.

14. Guildmasters’ Hall
This imposing two-story structure is relatively new in town and contains the meeting halls for the guildmasters as well as offices for various Waterdeep companies who keep representatives in town to meet incoming caravans.

15. Happy Cow Tavern
This pleasant tavern is the domain of Abigail and Tomid, who both tried their hands at adventuring and made a name for themselves. Only Tomid continues to adventure, though.

18. Iomedae’s Temple
Iomedae is the goddess worshipped by Duke Pwyll. Her cylindrical temple is the largest in the town, the only one to share the hillside with the castle. Liam Sunmist leads worship of this bright goddess of valor and justice and lends magical aid to those in need.

19. The Marketplace
This large empty area is the site of the market which takes place every fiveday and tenday of each ride. Farmers and small merchants bring their goods to the market and sell them from temporary booths. Recently, the booths have become more permanent, thanks to the installation of the drill field near the southern wall. Before, the militia trained in the marketplace and the booths had to be taken down at the end of each tradeday, but now the booths can remain. Many would now take a full day to dismantle.

20. Money Quarter
This is where the wealthy people of the town live. It is a district of larger houses that have little parks surrounding them. The larger merchants who don’t live over their places of business live here, as do a couple of rich former adventurers. Some minor nobility with holdings in the area also have small townhouses here.

22. River Gate
This gives access to the river and is usually closed, especially during flood time. Like the farmers’ gate, there is a tower built around it. It is mainly used by water carriers who need to fetch river water for the town. What few wells there are in the town are normally kept untapped in case of siege.

23. Rivermen’s Quarter
This section of town is primarily occupied by the people who make their living from the river. This includes fishermen and some small merchants who make regular runs up the river to Secomber and back. While most traffic abandons the river to take the Trade Way at Daggermark, some traders continue down the river to sell their goods at other hamlets and holdings.

25. Stables
This is a general livery stable available to the entire town. Militia horses and the water carriers’ horses are kept here, along with personal horses belonging to the adventurers and people living in the money quarter.

27. Towers
The towers of Daggermark are all of stone and firmly set in the local bedrock. They are all about 30 feet tall. The wall towers are split up into three stories plus the roof on which watchers keep their lookout. Most of the area in the tower is used for storage of war gear. Off duty militiamen often rest in the towers.

29. Wall
The wall around Daggermark is mostly an 8-foot tall earthfill mound topped with a 10-foot wooden palisade. One of the militia’s various jobs is checking the palisade logs for signs of decay and arranging for repair.

30. Water Carriers
This establishment is the home of the Watermen’s Guild who are responsible for providing most of the water used in the town. While there are several wells in Daggermark, most are capped so as not to be exhausted in case of siege. The carts of the water carriers go several hundred yards upstream of the town to get the purest possible water for their customers. Everyone in the town pays a tax to support the guild. The Watermen’s Guild is responsible for most other water-related activities in the town, including suppressing fires and making sure the drainage ways are working so any excess water flows back into the river. Water carriers can be identified by their distinctive blue caps and blue carts.

31. Tokadar’s Smithy
The Tokadar family owns this smithy and make weapons and armor for the town.