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FR - PF1 - Tavern Hopping

Page history last edited by tonyp 3 years, 8 months ago

Tavern Hopping 

 

July 20, 2020

 

The group wakes up to find Raz left.  A quick scrawled note says he's scouting.  Not wanting to blindly follow where he might have gone, they decide to follow up on the filth fever they found.  

 

Drewgan and Dakxer go to the temple and talk to the high priest of Tempus, Marik, who says they do have some people suffering from filth fever.  It's more than he normally sees but at the moment, they can handle it.  Drewgan and Dakxer then heal Anders, one of the ones with the disease.  They think there was something else there for a moment and so they switch who heals and the other watches.  They don't catch anything but still think something happened, so switch and try again.  This time, they do see some necrotic energy escaping out of the body, as if remnants of a spell.  They talk to the people who got it, and they say they got it at the Stag, a local dive tavern, which cheap drink and cheaper girls.  

 

The others go and try and find who gave the kids the wand.  They get conflicting descriptions but also that they were staying at Annika's boarding house.  Volhoric goes there and talks to Annika and she does know some names, Anya and Tanya but can't much else about them other than nice and pay the rent.  They meet up at the Sundered Shield and share information about what they each learned.  The ask Norma, the proprietress, about the other places.  The owner tells them the Stag is a rough place for drinking your sorrows.  The Pride of the North is for the well off, and she does seem surprised they keep coming back to her place but she does have the best owlbear steaks.  The Two Gypsy's is okay but her stew is better, even if a day old, and her rooms cleaner.  The Wench's Blade is for those who have a bit more coin but can't afford the Pride of the North.  They have passable fair but she grudgingly admits that when they get beef ribs, even she would have one.  Otherwise, it's goat stew and vegetables.  The group definitely thinks it happened at a local tavern, so decide to go check them out.  

 

That night, they decide to start with the Vulgar Stag and see if they can find the people staying at Annika's.  When they get there that night, they think twice about their choice.  The Stag is a dive, much worse than Norma described.  Laborers, apprentices, farm hands, and beggars converge here.  The group sticks out with their clothes and weapons.  They get food and drink, but Dakxer won't have his friends drinking that swill and dumps them out, filling them from his bag.  They try the crackers and if they get one that's not stale, it's too dry, or clumps of too much seasoning.  Looking around, it's all young adults, with no where better to go.  Outside there might be a game of daggers but that's it.  After a half hour, they head to the Pride of the North.  

 

The Pride of the North strikes them immediately as the wrong place.  They are given an escort, after paying the crown per head entrance fee, who shows them around.  There is an opera being performed in a theater in one wing.  Gambling, mostly cards, happens in another room.  There are baths with masseurs, some nude themselves, with extra servants holding wine and cheese.  Their escort gets them back to the main area and they know it was unlikely to have started here.  Expensive to get into the place and they sensed hidden guards and people who could detect if magic was being used.  Not worth the hassle.  

 

That leaves the Wench's Blade.  They thought it would be as bad as the Stag but were surprised at how nice it was.  (They also thought it might be another dead end but there was a map.)  Wood tables and chairs, although holding no more than three, spread out in a lower area, with an upper area having the bar.  A balcony overlooked the bar but while they saw it, they never go up there.  Looking around, it did feel like a step up from the Stag, maybe Journeyman or guards from the farms, waiting for companionship.  They are served some food and find some places to sit.  Marcus can sense illusion magic hanging around the woman behind the bar and the one serving their food.  He motions to Drewgan and Daxker, who confirm it.  The woman behind the bar didn't seem to like Shyrrik and he returned the favor.  They had barely had their first round when a woman, introducing herself as Meredith, says that the girls are ready for them.  The room clears out except for the group.  When they won't partake, Meredith suggests they leave.  Shyrrik looked like he was going to say something about that but the others got him to back down.  Marcus gets some cheese to go and they leave.  

 

Except Volhoric, who blended into the shadows.  Drewgan stepped outside, melted into a rat, and promptly went back in and over to Volhoric's table, to hide under it.  The rest of the group went to a corner, to hide that not all of them were there, and had the cheese and some ale.  Meredith moved forward to the door.  She shook her head at what she saw.  

 

"No, they haven't left yet.  They are eating and drinking in the courtyard."  

 

"You could tell them to leave," says the bartender.  "They are already suspicious, let's not give them a reason to stay or come back."  Meredith walks up to the bar but Volhoric and Drewgan see no way to get closer to hear them.  They strain from where they are.  They hear something about a half orc, the sewers, and the otyughs.  Then, some of the men are done already and emerging from the back room.  The women also disperse, with one going into the back and the others tending to their guests.  Realizing they won't get more, Volhoric says he's leaving, and Drewgan jumps onto Volhoric's back as Volhoric jumps out the window.  To their surprise, Drewgan is turned invisible by the sword's aura.  Volhoric walks up to Dakxer and says it's time to go, while still invisible.  Daxker takes the hint and tells the others time to go, so they leave.  

They discuss coming back to see if they can learn more and someone mutters something about glad no paladin is in the group.  

 

 

Session XP:   1700 XP 

Player XP bonus: 

Ben:                       Greg:900(JG),900(T),900(B),900(JH)                        Tony:900(G)                      

Jim:                       Q:                                                                           John:

 

 

GM Notes

  • When I explained the idea of a plague and filth fever to my wife, she asked why I couldn't be more original.  
  • I ended up faking a lot of the details, like the maps and the NPCs.  and it worked out.
    • I want to do more detail work as that is what makes it memorable. 
    • It also helped to give me time to get the map of the Wench's Blade done and some NPC's created.  I already had the others done. 
    • I tried to do accents for the women of the Wench's Blade but nope.  Bad.
  • Rolling was all over, very rarely middle ground.  Makes it more interesting.   

 

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