Forgotten Realms: Mystery of the Maps

[SpiritMonger]

Being relatively new to D&D (1 1/2) years and extremely new to being the DM (7 games) I didn't think I could come up with something...well worth playing but this game is turning out to be a pretty good one.

To set the scene we have four players:
Halfling Barbian - Harly
Elven Paladin -
Human Ranger - Wandern
Gnome Paladin - Snumpkin
Nipper the riding dog
A horse named .... nothing so we call him horse

These four all live somewhere is the dales, nowhere near each other mind you. Well here goes... Each one of the characters recieved an invitation to attend a funeral in the lovely town of Ashabenford. Written on the invitations it indicated that they were heir to some property of a man named Azben. Each of the characters decided to attend the funeral even though they never really had any knowledge of this person.

(strange isn't it? I just didn't want to have the players start out in a tavern or guarding a caravan, and it is very important to the story.)

Each of the adventurers arrive in ashabenford and that is where their quests begin.

Upon arrival they search the town for the funeral. (keep in mind they recieved their invitations about 2 weeks prior....) They find out that yes there is a funeral scheduled for the night and yes it was for a man named Azben. They reach the funeral site and find that it is a cremation instead of a traditional burial. Snumpkin approches the body and instantly tries to detect evil. Nothing.

A frail man approaches the body with a torch in hand and manages, with much strain, to stutter out... Eeeexxcusse mmmmemee Sissir bbbut we haave to begin. The gnome begins to question the man about the desceased but to no avail. It takes some time trying to descipher the stuttering but the gnome finds out that the man knows nothing of the body or who it used to be.

Snumpkin steps back and allows the cremation to begin trying to pay attention to the body and pay his respects as everyone else who was there pointedly leaves after the fire is started. Snumpkin and Kyren stay behind to pay their respects. Harly and Wandern on the other hand leave to look for the inhertiance they are "owed?".

(Now I actually had to run two games seperatly. I only had two to show up on the first weekend Snumpkin and Kyren. Harly and Wandern had a seperate session to catch up. Now how difficult would it be to have two seperate games take place at the exact same time in the exact same town and both parties be looking for the same man but not interact much with each other. I found it pretty hard seeing we had a ranger in the second game who kept tracking Nipper through town.)

 

[SpiritMonger]

Maps cont

1st game played with Snumpkin and Kyren:

Upon examing the body Snumpkin decided that he completely and uterly knew nothing of the man. Although he did look somewhat familier. The more he thought about it he seemed to remember a man looking very similiar to this one asking for directions in his hometown about three or four weeks ago. He thought nothing more of it until today.

Kyren remembered that he too had seen the man in his town almost a three teendays ago. He thought it funny though, because he was not accumested to seeing adventures who walked completely unarmed and seemed so lost. He blew it off as old age kicking in.

The two headed toward the desiginated meeting place getting better acquainted. Snumpkin noted that the man had no visible marks on how he died and did not seem old enough to be lost to father time.

(the invitations mentioned a meeting after the funeral in the White Hart Inn where the desceased's property would be distributed according to his wishes.)

Upon arrival at the Inn the two stepped up to the barkeep and began to question him about the dead man. He seemed to know nothing about him, not even his name. He could have been just avoiding answering. After taking a quick glance around the room they see a elderly fellow, rather well dressed sitting at a table in the back. He waves them back.

"Ah yes, must be one of the four I am looking for."

Snumpkin: "Well if you are talking about funeral they you are probably correct. You see we recieved these invitations to attend this funeral, and recieve a share of the inhertiance. "

"Yes, yes the invitations. Could I see them please. Just to verify you are who you say you are."

They hand the man the invitations, and he takes a glance before deciding these are in fact the fellows he was looking for. After a short discussion and a wait for the other two the older man decides to proceed, and since the other two hadn’t arrived yet that their share would be split between the present. With instructions to give them to the individuals if encountered.

The inheritance was a parchment tube. Inside the two found four maps leading in different directions.

(The maps were made corresponding to the players location or individual story lines. Each one of the maps also had a riddle or poem written on them.

Map one leads to the Dragon Spine Mountains. Kyren seems to take a fondness to this one.

Avoid your enemies
And you’ll be fine.
Revenge and gold awaits
In the Dragon’s Spine

Map two leads to the Vale of Lost voices. Wandern seems to know that this is his. Oh I forgot to mention. Wandern is mute.

All appears quite
Where the heros died
You’ll find your treasure.
Where the locusts hide

Map three leads to the Thunder Peaks. Nobody is sure who this belongs to.

Deep in the peaks
Where nobody knows
Lies a stronghold of treasure
Where the water flows.

Map four leads to somewhere to the east along a river. Again nobody has claimed this map as their own.

A path will open
But only at night
You’ll get your reward
Where rocks take flight.

 

[SpiritMonger]

maps cont.

The two leave heading for the dead man’s wife. Maybe she could fill in the blanks left behind. On their way out the door the old man returns with new information.

"I seem to have forgotten something else."

They sit back down.

"Ah yes, here it is. Hmm. Hmm."

After clearing his throat he begins to read.

Bring your weapons
Bring your skill
Come collect your treasure
Collect your fill.
North, south, west, east.
All around you
Sleeps the beast.
To find your treasure
Go back home
Destiny awaits you
In the Dragon’s Tome

(written from player notes.)

"Hmmm." Snumpkin begins, "could I take a look at that?"

The man looks down as if in amazement. It’s not there.

"what’s not there?" Snumpkin sharply replies.

"The writing simply disappeared. Right before my eyes."

Snumpkin snatches the parchment from his hand to find out for himself that yes, indeed there was nothing there.

After a brief moment of silence the man leaves, and the two set out for the wife’s house. Even though it is getting near nightfall.

They arrive at the house a short time later. They find a simple house nothing elaborate about it. After knocking they were greeted by the son of the wife. Who gave little or no information and asked them to come back in the morning when their mother was feeling better. Snumpkin’s sharp ears picked up on some rather heavy walking in the house, but his snooping revealed nothing. The two walked across the street to the other Inn in town, the Ashabenford Arms.

The barkeep was rather an unpleasant sort. Who by Snumpkin’s observations charged way too much for his rooms and food.

(the bartender sold them a room for 2 gold each and tried and tried to get them to buy the ale. He offered them some ale for 15 gold after they barraged him with questions. They thought him rude, but maybe he was just trying to make a profit. Information does cost.)

Snumpkin, worshiping Tyr decided that it would be just and right if he let Nipper poop in the corner of the room. We’ll see….

They came downstairs to find a couple of folks eating and gathering their things. Kyren decided to look about for someone who just stuck out in the crowd. And so he spotted her. Ariel was her name. She didn’t know anything about anything but Kyren just felt like he should buy her breakfast and drink.

(Kyren must have been out of his freaking mind. She took him for everything he had. She managed to talk him into buying her breakfast food and almost another night at the inn. This was the player. Gullible.)

 

[SpiritMonger]

maps cont.

After exiting the inn, the two ran into some beggars. They eyed Nipper like a fresh porkchop.

"How much do you want for the dog, sir?"

"He’s not for sale." Snumpkin snapped.

They talked to the beggars for a while. The beggar eyed the dog for a while, until Snumpkin decided to take the three beggars into the inn and buy them some food. After some arguing with the barkeep Snumpkin managed to arrange breakfast for them, but he was not content with just that. He had to see if it was being cooked properly. He walked right up into the kitchen and was soon followed by a rather large man who had been sitting at the bar. Kyren followed…

Soon after Snumpkin was assured that the food was being fixed properly and they were being treated just and fair. He paid and they left.

After a short visit at a temple dedicated to Tyr they decided to head out west toward the Thunder Peaks.

(The two had noticed all the way through town, that they seemed to be followed by one person or another. They even managed to chase one fellow down but lost him in the alleys. Nipper was always uptight and sniffing.)

Along the way the two adventurers heard some battle sounds that clanked off in the distance but closed quickly. A goblin popped over a ridge and headed their way. An arrow followed him. Soon many goblins poured over the ridge and all running straight for them. Then suddenly they stopped and took up defensive positions, but not in their direction. They were facing back up the ridge. Goblins ran over the hill followed by arrows and then orcs appeared. It was obvious that the two had just stepped into a war. Deciding not to engage any of the goblins or orcs they decided to ride through. After clearing the battle and not engaging a single creature they heard the battle die off suddenly. As a matter of a fact they heard nothing. Kyren did notice a large shadow moving across the ground. He quickly gazed at the burning sun to catch a glimse of something very large. They rode on…quickly.

After traveling a while they came across an ambush. Two goblins waiting behind a tree. Seemed easy enough. Snumpkin rode up on Nipper and with his spear pinned one to the tree. Kyren wasn’t so lucky though. He missed on several attempts to bash his opponent with his mace. Snumpkin pulled the spear from the impaled goblin and noticed more on the other side of the road. He quickly nudged nipper into action and with spear still fresh with goblin blood rode to the second. He practically rode through this one impaling it and flipping it over his head on his way to his third victim. Kyren managed to finally land a severe blow to the head of his enemy, crumpling it to the earth. Snumpkin with the fury of a wild man rode to his second. This time he wasn’t as agile as before, but after two attempts the goblin lay at his feet. Kyren turned to see another goblin behind him. This one though had an arrow straight through the back. Whatever killed this one was behind them. Snumpkin rode over after inspecting his prey and congradulated Kyren on his kill. Then noticing the arrow he inspected it. It was an arrow of very good quality, this was certain. Not a goblin or orc arrow. They decided to continue after wrapping the arrow and storing it.

Not long after they were in the Thunder Peaks. On the map it indicated a place marked the Rock Fields. They could see why. Rocks were everywhere. Every shape and size was present. It was getting night fall once again, so they made camp. Sometime during the night they heard some rocks falling and noticed a campfire in the distance. They decide to wait until morning to check it out.

 

[Rune]

Hi, everybody!

I'm a player in this campaign (I play Wandern Keinliebt, although you'll never hear him refer to himself as such, for a couple of reasons) and I will be doing campaign logs in the future (including the next one--the delay is my fault!).

For reference, by the way, SpiritMonger plays Drunken Dwarf Snores in my campaign (see the sig), and used to play Intelligent Chameleon Survives (in fact, he's about to do so again, I believe).

The player of the halfling in this game also plays the halfling (Fighting Man Dances) in mine (huge surprise!). The gnome is played the same guy who plays Strong Dwarf Stands and used to play Swift Serpent Strikes.

The player of the elf also made a guest appearance in my campaign playing Passion Readily Follows.

And for those of you out there who think this means I really am a Realms convert, I say, "Feh. It's not the setting, it's the game!"

 

[Broccli_Head]

It's a Realms tale! Would you expect me to not be here? Kinda confused right now since the party is split and wondering why the gnome decided to go to the Thunder Peaks when Kyren's 'map' indicated the Dragon Spine?