Tonight, I ran the first session of "Flood Season". It went tremendously, and I'm completely looking forward to this campaign. My players are crazy loons, and have created a Wiki to keep their (studious) notes about the campaign.
The wiki can be found here:
http://www.fief.org/cgi-bin/moin.cgi
I'm going to try to provide a sort of "behind the scenese GM commentary" on their actions and my decisions, to give their actions as recorded on the wiki another dimension. We're going to run (pretty much) every Sunday, and I'll do my best to post about every session.
First, a note about introducing the characters to each other. I decided I want to give them a little more involvement than "you hear scuffles in the alleyway", so I modified and fleshed out the acolyte character that gets jumped in the first encounter. That character became Adrian, a crazed father looking for his son, Deven. Deven's kidnapping was moved up to just 10 days ago. That act snapped the poor acolyte's mind and basically made him go nutters. After harassing Skellerang endlessly, he stole a bunch of gold from the Cuthbert coffers, he headed to Redgorge to hire some adventurers.
In Redgorge he meets up with the PCs while appealing to a crowd of market-day shoppers. They agree to take him to Cauldron and talk to the guard with him. He tells them he just wants them to talk to Skellerang, but his intent is to get them hooked into the case by getting them to form an adventuring company with the city. Thankfully, my PCs are all relatively goody goody, and after speaking to the Captain of the guard formalize their relationship between themselves and the city. The next day, the city broadsheet is screaming out the news that kids have been taken from the city Orphanage.
The PCs check out the Orphanage. They don't catch Patch's connection to the Last Laugh, even though one of the kids (who informs the PCs that the half-orc tells stories) mentions a sad story about a little man turning to crime to get some money. I think they might get back to this plot thread later. They pick up Ghelve's name right away, and set out for Adrian's home to make sure he has a Ghelve lock too.
On the way, the have the alleyway encounter. My PCs are locked and loaded for combat, with a buzz-saw of a gnomish barbarian in their midst, and take out the poor guardsmen in two rounds. Jil leans over the edge of the roof to gloat, and one of my players interrupts me. "So, there's another one?" "Uhh...yeah..?" "It's my turn next in initiative, right?" "Um, yes...but we were going to be out of init..." "Magic Missle!" He's a warmage, and does 7 points of damage with one Magic Missle. There is one more player before Jil can flee, and it's the fighter with Quick Draw. He drops his sword, grabs his short sword, and fires off an arrow at Jil. It's a possible crit. That confirms. I ruled that he manages to take out one of Jil's eyes, but doesn't kill her. (True. She was down to 2 hp, but she was up.) Her init. comes up and she flees over the rooftops, one of the PCs hearing her use the command work for the wand as she does. I think a one-eyed Jil, and the Last Laugh, is going to be a sore spot for the PCs in this campaign. :)
They take Adrian to the Cuthbert temple, where they meet Jenya. She explains that Adrian is basically off his rocker, but now that they're here and kids are missing she's stepping up. They dissect the divination in about five seconds, happy to see their suspicions about the locksmith confirmed.
They go to confront Keygan. The leader plays it slow, with the rest of the party fanning out in the shop, before he hits him with a "Why were your locks at every crime scene?". Keygan uses some head nodding and (thanks to some good Sense Motive) they realize he's trying to warn them. The skulk jumps down to the floor....and is promptly cut in twain by a crit from the barbarian.
They head down to Jzadirune, and very specifically don't go into the propped open "A" room. They're taking the divination a little literally. The elven rogue misses her secret door rolls as they move around, so they haven't found any yet. They head down the hall and around the corner, checking out the doors. The rogue trips the tilt-a-trap at the south end of J14, and takes one round of damage before her companions gets the pit door open and help her climb out. The skulks back in the "A" room are going to move up on them pretty quick because of the noise...unfortunately for them the barbarian is watching their backs. End of session.
Go check out the player notes, they're highly entertaining.
