Session 1 First Assignment for the Chicane Guild

Session 1 July 24, 2007
First Assignment for the Chicane Guild.
DM (Ben)

Players
Tayschren (Jeff) Male Elf War Blade-1
Brizza (Brandon) Female Elf Scout-1
Estonia (Brendan) Female Dwarf Rogue-1
Lucky (Mark) Male Human Rogue-1
Vesaes (Mike) Male Gnome Artificer-1
Prechrysler (Steve) Male Human Wizard-1

I met with my boss this morning. Venta Arctinsel informed me that my debt has been worked off. This was welcome news. She asked if I would be willing do another job for her before I leave. I told her I might be interested. Her reply was “Good, meet me tonight in the Sly Wink”. It’s not that I’m interested, but I don’t have any money whatsoever. Venta has treated me well, but I don’t entirely trust her. I arrived at The Sly Wink and was surprised to see Tayschrenn, Brizza, Lucky, Prechrysler and Vesaes. We had had a few drinks together at the Sky Wink before, but we always planed it out ahead of time. Talking to the others I found out that they were invited by Venta to be here tonight as well. I also discovered all of us had worked off their debt to the Chicane Guild just recently. Something doesn’t make feel right about that, but I can’t put my finger on it yet. Venta arrived and invited us all into one of the nice private booths in the back of the bar. Venta ordered Sumberton Spice Ale for all of us. She then went on to explain, “The Chicane Guild has a large order for spices needed for Spice Ale we need to ship out right away. Unfortunately our latest shipment was attacked and taken by a group of hobgoblin and goblin bandits south of Sumberton. The shipment consisted of spices for the spiced ale and fruit. She offered us 200gp each for the return of the spices and fruit. We asked how she knew that it was hobgoblins and goblins that attacked the caravan. She said, “One of the teamsters, Wallace, escaped and told of the attack.” We asked if we could take to him and we were told he was sent down river. She then asked us if we would take the job. We all agreed. Two things bothered me. One, if Wallace was a witness wouldn’t it be good for us to be able to talk to him for information like how many hobgoblins and goblins there were what was their tactics etc. Secondly, she was willing to pay 200 gold pieces each for some spices and fruit. That’s 1200 gold total! I can’t imagine the spices are worth that much and the fruit will probably have gone bad or been eaten before we can return.

I convince the group to meet up at 4:00 in the morning so we could get to the scene of the attack sometime in the morning. The road, which is usually well traveled, was completely empty. We didn’t pass a single caravan coming from the south. We found the sight of the attack there was a broken wagon and some blood just off to the side of the road. We looked around and found some tracks heading west further into the hills. The tracks were easy to follow and we traveled a couple of miles until we found a cave heading down into the darkness. The cave was more of a tunnel angling downward at almost a 45-degree angle. Down the middle of the tunnel was a rope to prevent slipping and falling to the bottom of the tunnel. The room at the bottom of the tunnel contained a bail of hay with arrows sticking out of it, four pillars and three hobgoblins. Tayschrenn and me ran into the room toward the two hobgoblins in heavy armor. Tayschrenn ran lots fast with those long legs of his and caught the hobgoblin unaware with his “thin” blade. I heard Brizza fire an arrow at the third hobgoblin up on the ledge. Prechrysler launched a magic missile at the hobgoblin on the ledge. Vesaes cast some kind of spell on my long sword he said it would help against the hobgoblins. I caught up to Tayschrenn and helped attack the hobgoblin he had already hit. They were wearing so much armor they were extremely hard to hit. Neither of us could hit the damn hobgoblin, but the hobgoblin on the ledge didn’t have any problems. His first arrow struck Tayschrenn and his second arrow hit me. Tayschrenn and me couldn’t worry about the hobgoblin on the ledge we had to kill the two we were engaged in combat with. I heard Brizza give an excited cry as his arrows struck the hobgoblin on the ledge. Even thought Brizza hit the hobgoblin it was stick firing towards Tayschrenn and myself. Tayschrenn was hit a second time by the bow-using hobgoblin. Prechrysler targeted the hobgoblins we were fighting with a color spray spell and the unwound hobgoblin collapsed. That was the advantage we needed, Tayschrenn and me surrounded the wounded hobgoblin and when he wasn’t paying attention I stabbed him with my long sword dropping him in a bloody heap. I had just enough time to glance over and see Brizza hit the bow-using hobgoblin with an arrow dropping him. Tayschrenn and me ran over to the sleeping hobgoblin and I delivered the killing shot. Looting the bodies we found, in addition to the armor and weapons, three potions with labels written in hobgoblin. Brizza translated them as “For emergency use only”. Guessing they were potions of healing Tayschrenn drank the first one. When I saw that he looked healed after drinking the potion I drank the second one and felt fully healed. The third potion we gave to Tayschrenn to use at a later time. The only way to go was through the double doors across from where we entered the room. We checked and opened the door and found a room filled with stolen merchandise and three goblins. Brizza whizzed a shot at one goblin as Vesaes fired at another. Vesaes dropped his and Brizza missed hers. Tayschrenn and I each went for the last two goblins. I hit and killed mine as Tayschrenn hit and killed his. Among the loot the goblins had collected we found three barrels of spices and 150 silver pieces. The room had three exits two of which went through demonic looking mouths and the third was a set of double doors. We checked and opened the double doors the room was empty except for another pair of double doors across the room. Checking the room we found a swinging blade trap. I disarmed the trap, but found the double doors were locked from the other side. We could hear voices in goblin, but they wouldn’t open the door no matter what we tried.

Quotes:
[When asked if we could talk to Wallace the lone survivor of the attack]
{DM} Wallace was sent down river.
{Estonia} That’s what happens when you fail they “send you down river”, floating face down.