#also to be clear. i dont think its like. a moral failing to like elf

[coffeeastronaut]

got mad about the portrayal of adoption in media again. 10 dead 50 injured

[dmcracy]

Solo campaign p.2 + Group 2. Poisons

The curiosity brought Myrta out of the forest to the small encampment made by gnolls . She saw those appalling creatures moving some prisoners to one of their tents and she immediately made a plan to put them all to sleep by poisoning the water. She was a herbalist and found some herb she thought might help create a poison. I made her roll a herbalist check and the result was a small vial or dark green liquid with an awful smell. She turned into some animal - snake I think - and sneaked to the camp (with her grass snake friend she made earlier in the game). No guard spotted her presence and she emptied a whole vial to their water reserve. Then she slithered away and waited.

Nothing was happening for a while and she began to worry that her plan failed. So Myrta and her bear got closer to the camp. Nothing was moving. They got even closer and finally realized that something was wrong. In the centre of the camp, Myrta found a bunch of dead gnolls close to the water reserve barrels. They died so fast it almost made a pile of them and I gave her a nickname Myrta the Poisoner. The remaining gnolls just run away to the mountains. After a moment of astonishment Myrta noticed smoke rising from the nearby village to the north and immediately released the prisoners and moved to the smoking village. The village was called Meander and she just accidentally saved its people since the gnolls were hunting its denizens. When she arrived and told the local mayor, MacGilmere, about the accident, the people were so relieved they started repairing the village and promised to make her a statue. In the meantime Myrta also healed one man from the head injury what made their decision even more concrete. The mayor even housed her in his house and she was given a magical dagger +1: Letterbane (the poor dagger never saw a real action and was used only to open letters, so whenever someone wanted to use it on a paper it trembled).

At this point, her patron revealed himself to her for the first time. Brandobaris took his normal form of a halfling lad and talked to her in some barn. She was suspicious about him because he was cryptic and kinda out of place in here. He disappeared without a trace soon after the talk and she met another NPC - a mercenary called MacCorryn. This guy came from the far south looking for some job. He traveled across the sea after some troublesome job he had in Slanterk. The job went poor and he got kicked more than a dozen times to the butt but eventually crawled to the temple and healed himself. Yes, this was the guy Llthrae and Mína fought on the streets of Slanterk. They talked a bit and somehow figured that those gnolls are still a threat if not all dead and people of this village need to be safe. So without any delay, they went to the gnoll camp and tracked the remaining gnolls to the mountains.

After some time, and one well placed entangle spell on the side of the mountain while falling to certain death, they found a cave where the remaining gnolls were hiding. The stench was terrible, bones and filth were scattered in front of the entrance and a very low voice was chanting something (there was a gnoll warlock trying to summon shoosuva). So Myrta made another plan - the cave must be pulled down and whatever was within shall be imprisoned. But while they were planning the guards spotted adventurers and attacked. They were dispatched, Myrta and MacCorryn tried to release some loose rock on the top of the cave. But the rocks would not budge and the chant was getting louder. Time was running out. The bear Myrta befriended was walking behind them nervously, because there was not enough space for its large body. Then, suddenly, they heard an unknown voice saying “dont get scared now” followed by cracking of bones and stretching of skin and a pair of large clawed bearlike hands pushed the rock with them. The rocks have fallen, everybody inside the cave died. MacCorryn quickly turned and saw a werebear standing behind them. This was Drýđ, a very unfortunate girl.

*******************************************************************************************

At this point, I introduced to my players a wandering mercenary siege engineer named Bors. Llthrae wanted to have his fort as invisible as possible but possible to defend if necessary (Mína could not join the game and her absence lasted for like 6 months). We made some preparations and Bors kinda joined the group. He played a mix of NPC and PC. I was expecting a good results in his playstyle because we played a lot of games together. But what happened amazed me. He totally nailed his character and played well even in those early moments. He even made a blueprint of that fort and gave it to us as PDF one day. And yes, he is my favourite. Not favourite meaning he can do anything he wants and everybody gets trash. No. He is my favourite because he plays so damn well, encourages others to do stuff so I can focus on details and remembers everything so I - a great improviser - can count on him because sometimes I just forget to make a note (for two hours for example, because I am dealing with things like players not having the char sheets and so on). 

Now Llthrae needed some workers. I made a sheet with a few possible groups so he could go and hire them. That never happened. He ordered Stan to do that while they waited in the fort. So, eventually, all of those groups came to the Western forest to work for Llthrae. Half-orcs, goblins, tiefling, gnomes, halflings, half-elves, dwarfs, and an elf. Yes, most of them hated each other. Everybody wanted something else. And even half-orcs disliked goblins. Then, Llthrae needed stone to build his home. The workers were given orders to clean the old road running through the forest, grub the surroundings of the ruin and prepare the wood for construction. Off course, Stan was given the order to watch them and the master (Llthrae) went to Mirin Kartak to talk to the quarry master. Do you remember the guy Llthrae woke up in the middle of the night banging on his door demanding more weed? That was Odal. And Odal remembers. So when Llthrae asked about the mason he was pointed to Odal’s house. Naturally, he did not remember what happened and Odal almost had a heart attack when he saw him again. But Bors was with them and they (Bors and me) made a deal (Bors saving the day was a canon from this moment). The stone was eventually delivered for a normal price and the construction work begun.

First, there was such low morale of his workers that the construction time extended for a month (Llthrae had no time to oversee his fort because he was enchanting an axe for Orik). The workers had nowhere to sleep and there was no real organization (the fort was still a ruin and a small tower where Bostock lived was big only for few people). Eventually, they were forced to group workers who can cooperate and build houses for them so the work could take a normal pace (trust me I know what I am talking about). Some accidents happened (Orik tried his new axe on a tree, the tree fell on a worker who was relieving himself) but they managed to help them and even improve the morale by granting workers a day off and preparing some refreshment for them. As sad as it sound when I look at the game now I see how Llthrae improved without Mína in our game (she had a little cameo, where she spent the entire time the fort was constructed in bed with the tiefling - he was a famous gigolo named Kaiil and I know - I am evil). He was influenced by others and tried to think more I guess (and my heart grew bigger for him).

As the fort grew they made few visits to Mirin Kartak, where Orik and Bors (and even Llthrae I think) trained with a famous swordmaster Caleb Arnyan. They even discovered a small cave close to the fort and befriended a mimic (they tried to kill him at first, but I played him too cute to kill so they kept him - another trap worked as I wanted). When Llthrae asked its name he responded Filip (in our country having a Filip means being smart - this was meant as a joke but we all liked it and they never bother naming him anyway). And when the work was almost done, Jolten Onnock and Argo Arkenbrand visited them. They explained to Llthrae that he could not cut timber wherever he wanted but if he would like to he can start a business with timber and the fort can work as a trade post (both merchants realized the potential this small event created - a clear road, taxable fort and so on). So when Llthrae heard about paying taxes and earning free money the invisible fort idea vanished. The merchants gave him a notion to build a repository and left to make a contract. He obeyed without a complaint.

The small house halflings built for themselves earlier was turned into a proper hobbit house with a great kitchen and they started cooking for the whole fort - it was the only thing they wanted to do here anyway and they were bloody good cooks (one of their famous treats was a gingerbread��which Filip loved). The other house Kharmar and his half-orks built was turned into a hall style house where travelling merchants could be accommodated (this house had a grand fireplace warming up whole building - this was the favourite place for Stan). So, when the final day came the workers were given payment and goblins and half-orcs (they became friends in the meantime) got employed as workers in the fort from that day. Bors received more than a thousand gold for his work and joined their group. And the next day, they all ventured to Slanterk to seal the contract and to celebrate two new ships from the wood Llthrae provided. One was named Sea Beauty and the other was given a name by Llthrae - Žriemäthnitpsä (I hope). I was happy, Llthrae was happy (I think) and the celebration was glorious.

But happiness made folk blind and darkness was already gathering. And a floating corpse in the docks foretold their future.