The Conquest of Frey: Chapter 1: Game 4



Game Master: Dave
Game Edition: D&D 3.5
Players: Andrew, Elijah, Joel R
Starting Level: 5 


Quote of the Evening:
"Excuse me, do you know where... Uh.... Mrs. Bar Keeps parents live?"


Introduction

At the end of the last game, we had returned to our base at Frunner's outside the town of Bellwick. We had just looted the ship that had been wrecked against the rocks outside Bellwick's harbour, and salvaged a large chest. But we hadn't opened it Yet.

So we were all pretty excited to see what we got. However, Jeff was unable to make it to this game, so he missed the reveal.

With only Elijah and Myself, Dave didn't think we could do much, but JADE often has guests, and our friend Joel R joined us as a Drow Druid named Ronah Val, which helped offset the balance, and move things along.

This game we spread a little terror around Bellwick, and actually started building our rebellion force. It moved a little slowly, but necessary plans got set in motion.


Scene 1 Ronah Val. The Chest. The Plan.

Dwannis Muck-Mug the Duergar Wizard (Andrew), Raskavas the Drow Fighter (Jeff) and Bodie Jarmakerson the Duergar Bard (Elijah), had just returned from raiding the wrecked ship. They managed to recover a locked chest, but they had yet to open it.

Last game Dwannis, Raskavas and Bodie had attracted four followers of our dark kin from Bellwick. Before they opened the chest, they checked to see that everyone was still there. Indeed the four had gathered around a campfire, eating the some of the fish they had caught during the day. Of the four men, one of them looked to be of a different sort. We had forger, and two labourers, but the fourth man looked to be of sterner stuff. 


Noticing their interest, the man stood and introduced himself as the Drow Druid, Ronah Val (Joel R). He had heard of the three's quest to conquer Frey for the Drow and Duergar and asked to join the party. Dwannis, Raskavas and Bodie mulled it over quickly, and agreed that a Druid would be an asset. With that settled, the four focused their attention on opening the locked chest. 

It was Dwannis that managed the miraculous feat of picking a lock with a fish hook, (natural 20!) revealing the treasures inside. There were 500gp, five gold chalices and a Gemmed +2 Great Club! Dwannis quickly grabbed the great club, and the rest was divided up among four. There was some discussion as to whether Ronah Val was entitled to a share, but Dwannis was insistent that the gold be split as equally as possible. It seemed a strange act at the time, but Dwannis hoped to buy Ronah Val's allegiance as quickly as possible. But when dividing the gold, Dwannis noticed that the coins were not stamped as local currency, and a Local Knowledge skill check revealed that the coins would indeed be thought strange.

Not wanting to attract attention to what he was starting to see as his small rebel band, Dwannis came up with the idea to melt the gold into small bars, and essentially use that as their currency for the time being. 

So, Dwannis told the the rest of the group his plan: they would gain access to the blacksmith's forge in the city, by killing him and then inheriting it under a different name, much the way they did with Frunner's.

The party agreed, ate a meal and rested. They would head to town the next morning.


Scene 2 Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

Before they left for town, Dwannis assigned his followers their tasks for the day: fishing, smoking fish, and getting firewood. This way the camp would sustain itself. 

With that in place, Dwannis, Bodie and Ronah left for Bellwick using two the two row boats. Since Jeff could not join us, the party left Raskavas "in charge" of the camp

They rowed along the coast in their small row boats. But they were terrible at it! They beached their boats over 15 times since their strength rolls were so poor.

When they finally arrived at the docks, they could see the Bellwick Coast Guard had gone out to investigate the shipwreck. Rumour on the docks was that their was an explosion in the night! Dwannis chuckled to himself, knowing it was the Fireball he used to roast a naga.

There were also rumours that the ship had gold on it and the authorities were bringing it a shore. It was a good choice to not spend the money right away.


Scene 3 Scheming in Town.

The Blacksmith's shop lay in the town square, to the left of the tavern that the party had plagued so often. Dwannis also knew that the Blacksmith had a brother. They would need to get rid of both of them, if they were to convincingly claim the shop. But they couldn't just murder to men in the middle of town. This would require planning and finesse. And thus they party spent most of the morning planning their next move. 

They cycled through about ten different plans before deciding on the following course of action for the day:
 

1.They would try to clear things up with the Cleric that Raskavas pissed off in Conquest of Frey Game 2.
 

2.They would blind the Blacksmith in his sleep and kill his brother, 

3.They would then then pose as blacksmith assistants and help the blind 
blacksmith run the shop, thus gaining access to our forge.

4.Bodie really wanted to own the tavern as well.

  They began on step one, with Bodie leading the way. They were counting on his charisma and diplomacy skills to help smooth thing over with the Cleric. However he was able to convince the cleric to join our side. Try further, he claimed that the group was much more organized then she thought. He came up with the name the Frunnerian movement on the spot and invited her to come see our camp and how the party were helping the people. She agreed to come see the camp, but only after Raskavas apologizes for his assault on her.


Cursing under their breaths as they left, Dwannis, Bodie and Ronah decided to stake out the Blacksmith's place, hoping to find an opportunity to blind him that night.


Scene 4 The Big Con.

They waited out the rest of the day until night fell, watching as the Blacksmith closed his shop and headed over to the tavern.

Sadly at this point Joel R had to go home. So Dave took over his character, which turned him into more or less of an automaton.

Bodie and Dwannis were still hiding out around the Blacksmith's shop, when the Blacksmith returned from the tavern with his Brother, and him in to drink some more.  The party hadn't planned on killing the brother tonight, but the opportunity was too good to pass up. 

This was when they came up with a brilliant plan. Dwannis happed to have a decent amount of poison on him; Dave let him have it as part of his starting equipment. With the poison, They would sneak into the tavern and poison the wine. They would then go to the Blacksmith's, wait until the brothers passed out, (dwarves always drink until the pass out when they drink.) And then poison the brother and use the Blind spell on the Blacksmith. Since the tavern is the only place in town to get liquor, it would appear that a batch of bad wine had killed/blinded them.  The Blacksmith would be blinded, the brother would be dead and the tavern owner would most likely be arrested.

With that Dwannis, Bodie and Ronah Val headed towards the tavern.


Scene 5 Poisoning the Wine.

Dwannis and Bodie slipped into the tavern. Waiting for an opportunity to let Dwannis sneak into the cellar where the wine was kept. They tried several different things to provide an opportunity for him sneak into the cellar, ranging from complaining about rat droppings in the food, to having Bodie try to fascinate the Barkeep, but nothing worked. The Barkeeper stayed behind his bar, where access to the cellar was, the whole time focused on his work and customers.

As luck would have it, some of the bar patrons were a little "over-served" and began to brawl. The Barkeeper went to break them up, and Dwannis used that opportunity to dash into the cellar.

Before he left, Bodie offered to stay so Dwannis could get out again, but Dwannis told him to leave, so as not arise suspicion. Dwannis would find his own way out. 


In the cellar, Dwannis found the wine barrel and poured a lot of the poison in. It was an simple task, however, there didn't seem to be any other way out then they way he came in, or through the crowded kitchen at the back. Seeking a way out, Dwannis listened through the cellar door and heard that the barkeeper was coming.

Quickly he hid on a barrel and waited for the barkeep to come down. The man headed straight past where Dwannis was hiding and entered the kitchen. Using the opportunity, Dwannis ran up through the cellar door and left the tavern.

The wine was poisoned. The plan was in motion.


Scene 6 Planting Evidence.

Bodie and Ronah Val had been hiding around the Blacksmith's shop. When Dwannis found them, they had already spied through the windows and seen that the Blacksmith and his Brother were fast asleep in a pile of empty bottles. 

Quietly Dwannis and Bodie picked the lock to the house and entered, tip-toeing through the bottles. As Bodie poured some of the poison down the brother's throat, Dwannis cast a Blind spell on the Blacksmith. Neither of them woke up. 

They then left the Blacksmith's shop planning to plant a bit more evidence of the tavern's poisoned wine. A group of drunken stragglers leaving the tavern presented the perfect opportunity.

Dwannis Bodie and Ronah followed one of them home as he split off from the group and waited for him to go to sleep. Again Dwannis slipped into the house and Blinded the man while he slept. 

Confident in a job well done, Dwannis, Bodie and Ronah left the scene deciding to get some rest. Sadly the only place they could sleep was Dwannis' garbage pile. Needless to say, none of the three magic users rested enough to have their spells recharge.

Scene 7 Back to Frunner's

The following morning, the group returned to Frunner's to rest and let the poisoned wine plot unfold over the next day. So they returned to their rowboats and rowed home. When they got there, they found that the Forger had recruited more people to Frunner's adding another fifteen able bodies to the group. This was great news, but the newcomers had not been given tasks for the day and had eaten almost all of the supplies Dwannis and Raskavas purchased.

To deal with the issue, Dwannis organized the followers. Ten of them would fish at different spots along the coast. Four of them would be responsible for smoking fish. Three would be creating spear shafts had one cutting would.

With that, Dwannis and Ronah slept for the rest of the day, while Raskavas continued to monitor the camp. Bodie on the other hand had other ideas.


Scene 8 Bodie's Day on the Town

Bodie was dead set on taking the tavern and could think of little else. His idea was that he would convince the Barkeeper he could break him out of prison, if he turned ownership of the tavern over to the Frunnerian Movement. He decided to rest for a few more hours before deprating.

Bodie discussed this plan with Dwannis just before he left, who agreed it was worth a try. The two also agreed Bodie would have a greater chance of success if he went alone. So Bodie rowed into town, and used his Disguise skill to appear as a guard. 

As it turns out, the Barkeeper had been arrested as planned and was being held in the stockades in the town's barracks. Bodie headed over to the barracks, and smooth talked his way past every guard, even going so far as to speak to the captain of the guard himself. After managing to get permission from captain to interrogate the prisoner, Bodie went and spoke with the Barkeeper, whose name happened to be Bar Keeps... very creative Dave. 

After a quick conversation, Bodie convinced the barkeep that the Frunnerian movement saw him as a friend to the cause, and was willing to help him escape if he ratified the deed, passing ownership of his tavern to the Frunnerians. 

Bar Keeps claims that he can read magic, so Bodie tells him that he will arrange the delivery of some spell scrolls, that he can use to escape from prison. Surprisingly, Bar Keeps agrees on the condition that Bodie also rescues his wife. 

And then Bodie left to arrange that, without asking where his wife could be found.


Scene 9 Mrs. Keeps Parents Place

Still disguised as a guard, Bodie began to ask everyone he saw where Bar Keeps' wife was staying, and that is where our quote of the evening comes in, as Bodie realizes that as he didn't even know her name.  After a half hour of asking, Bodie learned that she was staying with her parents and got directions. 

He arrived the door still in his guard disguise and asked to enter the house so he can question Mrs. Keeps. Her father let him in to the house and he spoke to Mrs. Keep in private. He revealed that he was sent by her husband to take her away from here, but it turned out Mrs. Keeps hated her husband, and didn't want to go... And then everything went a little crazy.
 

Fearing exposure, Bodie killed Mrs. Keeps on the spot with a blow from his Urgosh. Hearing the struggle her father tried to intervene, but Bodie killed him easily as well. When Mrs. Keep's Mother saw the horror, she ran out into the streets screaming 'The guards killed my family!' 

Bodie left the house, took off the disguise and returned to Frunner's. The next steps would need to be planned carefully. But at least a seed of distrust was planted between the populace of Bellwick and its constabulary. 


Conclusion

Some small plans had been set in motion, but we were still being held back by Raskavas' insult to that Cleric. That needed to be sorted out so that the Frunnerian Movement could start actively attacking Bellwick.

The blind blacksmith is a step in the right direction. if we can get access to his workshop, we can start minting out gold, and forging our own weapons. 

Bellwick would be ours. It was only a matter of time.



                          
The Conquest of Frey: Chapter 1: Game 4 The Conquest of Frey: Chapter 1: Game 4 Reviewed by JADE Gaming on 3/20/2014 03:55:00 pm Rating: 5

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