I really shouldn't wait this long. Notes become a bit squiffy. I am not entirely certain of the series of events with the poison identification and finding Gastin. Let me know if you have something different.


The 24th day of Summer's Breadth dawned with a fine. It seems that, in Whitestone, wizards and sorcerers must acquire some sort of license before practicing any sort of arcane magic. Doing so in the presence of the nobility is certainly a dangerous undertaking. Brenaed was fines 50gp for his non-violent use of magic. It stands to reason the fine would be less if witnessed only by other commoners, and the fine would be death if the magic were violent.

Those who practice arcane magic are not to trusted, but paladins, dull and dimwitted as they may be, can be trusted with anything. Sir Alestair was summoned to the home of Baron Joren Lanchester, the father of Harold, and presumably the noble who cost Brenaed 50gp. Alestair explained more about what they had learned and how.

The story is that Baron Lanchester is a vassal to Duke Warren Kespot. Harold Lanchester is engaged to Lisa Kespot, the only daughter of the duke. Though their lands are all to the northwest, they are all in Whitestone for the tournament. Seeing the inheritance at stake, the party inquired who else may be interested in the Lady Lisa. Baron Roderick Planton has a son, Larby, who is of a suitable age. He is also a vassal to Duke Kespot. Though Harold was competing in the tournament in the joust, he did not seem likely to win, and so rising to the power of a duke seemed like a more likely motive.

Despite reasonable odds, Livid was unable to move past the first round of the archery competition, effectively proving that elves are inferior to humans to all who witnessed the event.

On the 25th, the party went to the prison and spoke to the brigands (campers) who mistakenly took the laundrywoman captive. In things that seem obvious to a DM but not players, they never really noticed that the other laundrywomen reported 4 or 5 brigands, but they fought 6. Eventually they considered what they knew of Itzala, the goddess of thieves. It seems Itzala does not approve of murder except in the last resort, such as trying to escape the law, and certainly never murder for hire, which appears to be the case here. After much useless questioning, they finally understood that Peter, the cleric of Itzala, really did not know about the murder for hire and did not go with them. He told them what they could, which was primarily that Tronkin would be the leader and the one to make contracts. Tronkin was willing to admit nothing, but suggested he might have heard about a place, a time, and a meeting with an unknown man who had a scar on his left hand. He thought that information might go a long way towards seeing himself having a bright future.

The party then sought to identify the poison, hoping that would reveal more. They went to the Rose Square and entered the Reliable Vial, where they met Robar Heck. The tidy apothecary had very little trouble in identifying the poison from the residue in the vial. It was Orange Frog paste, a poison that is activated by heat and moisture. In something that the DM thought would take at least 10 minutes to figure out, it actually took the party about 1.7 seconds to figure out armor is a great place to put this sort of poison.

With this information, the party set out to find the baron and his son, which they did on the tournament grounds. When told of the threat to his armor, Harold ran as fast as he could back to the estate where they were staying. His concern was for his young brother, Grissom, who sometimes plays in his armor. Grissom was alright, and the poison was indeed found on the inside of Harold's helm. This did not reveal the identity of the poisoner, only the method.

The party staked out the partially burned out warehouse where this meeting happened. They did not find the man they sought, but they did discover that the warehouse, while deserted, also has many cracks in the walls and ceiling where anyone could see what was going on inside. This is probably partly the reason why it is deserted. The party spotted a man running across the rooftops, but they could not catch him in time. Going into a nearby inn, the Wavery Badger, they learned the man might be Gastin.

Later that night, the party waited on the rooftops for Gastin to come by, which he did. Gastin would not get too close, but he did listen.... and indeed, he had seen what happened that night. He tends to investigate when he sees things that are odd, and torches inside an abandoned warehouse are certainly odd. He didn't see the man in question, only that he left (and presumably arrived) with two guards, one of which called him Reginald. Gastin was happy to provide this information for the mere kindness of gold from Brian Hawk.

The party returned the next morning to see Baron Lanchester, and they told him what they had discovered. Though upset they only had a first name, the baron was satisfied. Reginald Carter is the chamberlain of Baron Roderick Planton, and this would explain a great deal. The baron asked the party to return the next day after he could verify a few things.


With the day still fresh, the party met with Squire Edward Stopling. Edward was hoping that his new friends might accompany him into town to meet his mother. It's not a great part of town, and he was a little nervous about running into old friends. The party agreed, and that evening they went off to the Dragon Ham Tavern. It was a small tavern, and it became apparent that it was named for the spiciness of the food. Spice is wonderful because it can hide the taste of poison from all but some Trellimen. Everyone was suddenly paralyzed except for Sir Alestair, which was unfortunate for the young paladin. A gang of thieves came rushing into the room from the kitchen and ran over to Edward. In a fit of righteousness, our brave paladin stood to face them all down. He graciously offered them a chance to surrender, which they did not accept. Sir Alestair fought bravely for about 3 seconds before before succumbing to his wounds and falling. Some thieves stripped him of his sword and coins while the others beat the shit out of Edward. They did not kill him, but the beating was thorough. They then carved "thief" into his forehead with a knife. One of them shouted right into his face "You can't ever leave the gang!" Then they all fled.

Once the paralysis wore off, the party got more of the story and a mopey paladin. It seems as though Edward and his older brother, Jenson, were members of a gang called the Nightcrawlers. Jenson was in a house that was supposed to be empty when he was caught by the homeowner. Edward wanted everyone to go in to get him out before the watch arrived, but the leader wouldn't let them. His brother ended up doing 6 years of hard labor, which is pretty rough to start when you're 13. Edward wanted out, but he didn't know how. His mother finally send him to her brother in Thadlen where he was a chef for a knight named Sir Hector Leese. Hector liked the boy, and eventually made him a squire. This was Edward's first time home to Whitestone in 8 years. The man who did most of the beating, forehead carving, and shouting was his brother, Jenson.

On the way back to the tent, the party stopped at the small temple of Agnelo so Sir Alestair could borrow a sword. This naturally led to a discussion by irksome players about the nature of a single god who lets evil things happen, who grants the prayers of the wicked. Sir Alestair attempted to answer, but as a young paladin he sometimes forgets how little the others understand. Every man has freewill, and no god may see into the heart of a man. Actions and words define a man, but not the thoughts that are inside. All priests agree on this. Some say it is the weakness of man, some say it is the weakness of gods, some say it is the gift of the gods, and some say it was a covenant between the first men and the gods. Whatever the reason, each man is free. Prophecies are a matter of odds, not absolutes. There is no doubt that priests have power. They can call on the powers of god to strike down another, to heal the sick, and many other miraculous things. How would a god know whether a man were truly righteous? If he says the right words and acts the right way, does a man come to the priesthood because he is a moral man, or because he seeks the power? If only one priesthood offered such powers, then all men who sought such power would go to that priesthood... but if all priesthoods offer power, then the priesthood of Agnelo will not be filled with men who seek power, but peace and righteousness. Agnelo wants men to follow him and do the moral thing because they know it is the right decision, not because it is the only decision.

The next day, the party first visited Baron Lanchester, who had verified a few things of their story. He said he would handle it from there, and rewarded the party with 500gp.

Then the party learned that the old hideout for the Nightcrawlers was hidden inside an inn called The Muddy Boot. The hideout was actually in the basement, but the only access was through the attic. They brought with them Sir Hilton, who was eager to help out young Edward, and debated their assault options. They opted for the front door, and then Brenaed decided to threaten the innkeeper, who promptly ran off and said he would summon the watch.

They opened the door into the attic, and their expert efforts at stealth were defeated by a cleverly placed can. Two men were on lookout, and they were killed quickly. Though perhaps only their mothers will care, their names were Harnas and Fers. Sure, they weren't nice boys, but they'd had a rough life, and maybe it wasn't for the party to judge. One of them was only wounded, looking forward to possibly reforming his ways, but Livid cut his throat. Livid is kind of a bitch.

It was a long, narrow drop down to the hideout below. Sir Hilton went first, and began attacking the thieves within. This would ultimately go badly for him. Though he admits he is not great in hand to hand combat, the thieves kicked his ass, and he swooned. The battle was a close thing as members on both sides began to drop. Finally, the beloved party had won out, and it was time for Edward to decide what to do with his brother. He decided he should live... he may be an asshole, but he's still his brother. Of course, that didn't mean they wouldn't be left penniless and without any sort of weapon or armor, particularly with Livid around.

They left the inn without ever seeing the watch. Funny, that.

The slept the night worried they might be attacked... by the gang, by other thieves, by the watch, they didn't know, but they were afraid. Sir Hilton was a bit freaked out. The night passed quietly, however, and dawn on the 28th day of Summer's Breadth was upon them. Renee, Brenaed, Livid, Alestair, Hilton, and Edward could not help but wonder who might try to kill them next, and why.

Hey! I'm not dull!

See you fellers on Saturday.

Is gaming tomorrow?

No?

THEN YOU ARE EARLY

Well, I checked my schedule and it turns out there were no raids.


In other news, a brief addendum: I believe you trained for most of the day of the 28th. Brenaed also squired for Sir Hilton. Again, you were not bothered by thieves nor watchmen. We will start at sunset of the 28th, and you're second level.

coughcoughendofcampaignrecapcoughcough

Sounds about right. With my newly-acquired +1 BAB, I should be able to improve my 12.5% to-hit success rate.

So now you'll miss by 4 instead of 5?


Edit: It has become clear that the nature of E6 combined with our boosting of armor means that, in general, it will be significantly more difficult to hit people in this campaign. I think as magic is introduced, it will need to be shifted towards the "to hit" rather than damage or AC.

Tu shay.

And I realize why I wasn't hitting consistently. It was just the nature of die rolling that the tank was flailing as if he had never held a sword before, while everyone else was stabbing and punching and kicking.

My point is that rolling poorly is only part of it. Imagine being the wizard you just were, except all anyone has to do is roll 6 or better against every spell you cast to negate it. That's effectively what we're talking about. Maybe you rolled 2 or 3, but rolling an 11 wouldn't have helped you out either.

I, on the other hand, rolled like an angry god. I didn't even get sneak attack damage and dropped a bunch of you! Ha!

It must be such a shame to go through life with nobody liking you.

So, while I do think we (rightfully) have more to worry about from armor, I think I had some suggestions in the Peak AC email. I think the armor pierce feats will be valuable if we are fighting armored foes, etc.


You've also had very challenging fights for us, especially given that we've fought nothing but PC classes up until this point, and in greater numbers than ours. They were also full combat op it seemed, not spending feats on "skill focus: intimidate" like you might expect a some of the level 1 gangsters to need to hold their "jobs", but instead being kitted up with imp init, dodge, etc. This is all fine, of course, but it's worth pointing out if you are wondering why the PCs seem balanced on knife edge thus far.

I'm not convinced the AC or hit chance is that much more concerning than I originally layed out. If we're going to be 5th level with 2000 gold of items, with a +1 sword out of reach, then yea, you should address.

But I would suggest finalizing and publishing feats that are aimed at a steady diet of PC classed humans, even if that just includes going through the list of feats and pointing them out specifically (ex: weapon focus becomes better than normal, an armor piercing thing becomes better, disarming becomes better but is probably still overbudget, etc), and then consider a system level change if you need it.




EDIT: And so I'm clear, I totally support a game with challenging fights, combat built enemies, and NPCs built like PCs. You can tell I support this because it is mostly how I run every campaign. You just end up seeing stuff like "gosh, that AC is really high on bad guy A and really low on bad guy B" next to "why does no one have hit points and if I roll well I TPK?". It's because the player character frame is built to be exciting, with high possible damage, high build variance, and moderate defenses, so when they all get mixed together you end up with odd results at times. The monster templates normally put a lot of health on the table with smaller variations in damage- usually Team Monster is always able to strike the PCs and draw blood, but seldom able to turn into a death whirlwind.

Those dice were but a preview of low PC rolls!



And in fairness, it might be able to minimize his sentence- after all, we can scapegoat that guy.



Yea, that's the thing with PCs- they are all fucked up an alien in their thought process. Put five hints that lead in a direction and they'll be busy trying to find the lowest deal on paste so that they can sit around and eat the paste, but throw some vague hints and suddenly you'll see Batman logic, entirely at random. "Orange frog poison! Orange has no rhymes, and neither does purple. Purple starts with P, and so does Protection. Armor provides protection. GREAT SCOTT LOOK IN THE ARMOR!!"



SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING CALOR WOULD SAY



I WAS curious about that, actually.