T w e n t y S i d e d
Eomer the Rogue, Thordek the Fighter, Enoch the Cleric, Thu’fir the Blade Lord, Endo the Monk(an NPC), and Garret Lorman (another NPC) are all in the small farming and fishing village of Washport.
Beck the (former) first mate of Ocean’s Majesty (and also an NPC) has been left behind in the town of Telwin Port to the west, where he plans to help in the ship construction currently underway.
The party loads up on supplies and then heads east from the town of Washport. The terrain ahead looks uneven and rocky, so they head out on foot, leaving their horses behind.
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They are looking for the Mages Archives. They are taking young Garret Lorman with them. As the last prince of the Lorman line, he’s the only person who still knows how to find it. The building is obscured by unknown magic, and a full search of the barren wastes of the south would be difficult and dangerous. Without Garret, they would have no hope of finding the place in time to make use of its secrets.
They make decent time, given the nature of the land. By mid-day they are clear of the trees and begin to make their way over the tumbling, rocky hills. There are scruffy patches of green clinging to what little soil can be found amonst the rocks. To the north they can see the near-vertical southern face of Khelberg. It is grim and dark.
Evening comes and they make camp. Thordek watches. Thordek sees movement in the distance during his watch, but it is too distant to see what it is. Something is out there among the moonlit rocks, though.
After a few hours Skeeve awakens from a nighmare.
I don’t know what nightmare he had at this point in the game, but it served to make the next section a little more unnerving and confusing for him…
He decides to stand watch and lets Thordek sleep. Thordek warns Skeeve about the non-specific movement in the distance, and then goes to sleep.
Skeeve decides to check it out. He casts fly and glides into the air, heading north towards whatever Thordek saw.
Skeeve sees a figure walking north, just below him. As he decends, the figure vanishes like a mirage. To his right he sees another, also walking north. Again, as he draws near it becomes more difficult to see. It’s like looking at fog. Up close it’s invisible, but at a distance it can be clearly seen. For a while he doesn’t see any more. Then he sees many. He chases them around for a while, moving steadily north.
Eventually he figures out that the figures can only been seen at a distance, and only when they are illuminated by direct moonlight. They are ghostly figures, and pay him no heed. They are elven in appearance, although their dress is unfamiliar to him and strangely rustic. They gather at the crown of a hill and look up towards the slopes of Khelberg.
He returns to camp and the night passes. In the morning he tells everyone what he saw, and they give him an earful for abandoning his post while on watch, and for not waking them up when there was potential danger nearby.
They talk for a long time about what Skeeve saw and what it might mean.
The next day they continue their journey east. On the way they intrude on the territory of an Ettin and are obliged to kill it. It is a quick fight but the smell gives them something to complain about for a while.
To nobody’s great surprise, Garret is nearly useless in combat. He tries to use martial arts, kicking and flailing his arms in a sad imitation of Endo. He mostly ends up just thrashing around and making a fool of himself. He’s like a kid who has just walked out of his first martial art movie and has decided he’s Bruce Lee. He spends most of the fight on his butt. Eomer instructs him to keep out of the fight next time.
Could Have Been Great
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Great to see this feature has returned. :)
I like the description you’ve given of Garret,I know from experience that it is difficult to produce NPCs who are realistic (not random) and don’t fit easily into stereotypes, you’ve succeded admirably here. It could have been even more interesting (although, probably not as fun or succesful in game terms) if it was one of the PCs he’d latched on to in this way.
How come Skeeve is never mentioned in the character sumamries at the top?
Yeah, what Tango said. I was wondering about that too. Was it his turn to get Pizza?
I would of thought that future king was trained in art of war from quite young age as was customary among nobility in middle ages thus being able to fend for himself if given weapon. I assume he was over 6 years old.
To Seve, who will probably never read this, and any who agree with him:
In no way can you compare the middle age nobility with the Lormanites! They’re magic-orientated and it’s perfectly concievable that Garret has never had a weapon in hand. It’s already been mentioned earlier that he has been studying magic all his life…
Typo: “nighmare” just before the second DM note.
In the second DM note, “hed” instead of “he”.
In the third DM note: “relived” instead of “relieved”
Chris, give it up. Yes, there are typos. Who cares? We can still understand it. If we were paying for this content, we could complain. If someone gave you a cookie, would you complain about how few chocolate chips were in it? Just enjoy what you get.
Clearly Chris cares.
I would also argue that pointing out spelling and punctuation errors is not really “complaining”, just correcting. I doubt he means it to be read as: “This is wrong. Fix it now or suffer continued mention of it!”, but rather as: “There’s a mistake here. I don’t know if you care or not, but I’ll point it out in case you do.”
Also, you made me want cookies, so curse you.