The Odd Couple: Run out of Town

[Litzen Tallister]

To preface the preface, I finally got around to giving Castles & Crusades a try and decided to dive into the online community as well. Hi everyone!

To preface, this campaign is my first attempt at integrating our nine year-old into the land of pen and paper gaming, alongside the spousal unit. So far so good, with the following dramatis personae: Spider, an elven wizard (yes, spider climb was the first choice of spells...clearly there's some sort of spider issue going on ). Grunhilde, a dwarven fighter (female and bearded, as if there were any other kind?). There's a planned ongoing villain, though he has yet to make his appearance. Or perhaps he's been there the whole time in the shadows...

The campaign opens in the city of Ersilbor, city of light and law, a bustling, walled metropolis that relies on rigid adherence to laws(Law?) to ensure peace, prosperity, and happiness. Our intrepid adventurers are enjoying none of this, as both Spider the Elven Wizard and Grunhilde the Dwarf Fighter find themselves incarcerated underground, awaiting trial by the Midnight Court. Through commiseration, the two discover each other's crimes. Spider was arrested after being found climbing a holy tree in the Sacred Grove of the Priest's Quarter. Grunhilde was hauled in for drunken combat in a local tavern, leaving several guards worse for wear, and Grunhilde with a broken nose.

Neb the Jailor, a man who enjoys his work a little too much, escorted Spider and Grunhilde through the winding tunnels underneath the city, that serve to prevent escape and to ensure the good citizen's lack of exposure to the criminal element. Nearly to the court itself, Grunhilde made a break for it. Neb, knocked prone by the stout Dwarf, could do little but chase after the fleeing fighter. Spider, was pulled into the court itself by a pair of guards, who held the Wizard fast, keeping any possible magical retribution at bay. Six guards chased after Grunhilde and, despite furious resistance on the part of the Dwarf, soon hauled her before the Midnight Court.

Justice was swift, the pair was to be exiled from Ersilbor just before dawn, never to be allowed to return. With threat of archers' arrows, the two were run out of town. Slightly roughed up, but at least alive. Shortly after getting out of eyesight of the city, the two heard a male voice shouting for help. The voice was from further down the road, past a bend that wound through the foothills. Upon arrival, they discovered a peasant with a cart, under assault by a pair of foul-tempered goblins. The peasant, seeing two brave adventurers, beseeched them for assistance. Before they could respond, the goblins turned on the adventurers, accusing them of meddling and stating that no one messes with the Black Thorn Gang. A short-lived battle saw the duo victorious.

After dispatching the monsters, the peasant introduced himself as Erath Nustgump and bemoaned the predations of the Black Thorn Gang, stating that they have been harassing traders going to and forth to Ersilbor and that the local villages are being ruined as a result. Earth described the gang as spread wide over the land, with a veritable army patrolling their territory, the Cairnsdrop Foothills, due South of the current location. Erath begged for help to end the tyranny of the Black Thorn Gang and Grunhilde immediately volunteered their services and promised to rid the land of the Gang and their ilk.

Finding little but wrecked wagons and crashed caravans, the heroes wandered through the remains of the victims of the Black Thorn Gang. But, there were signs of a stranger foe amidst the casual carnage. Some bones of victims seemed snapped in half. Great ruts were carved in the earth. And, there was a corpse, cocooned in a sticky substance. The body, despite being found amidst victims robbed of anything of value, still had coin aplenty. As the sun set, the two made camp for the night. While Spider found herself asleep amidst the grassy tufts, Grunhilde found a slab of exposed rock to guide her to sleep with dreams of her homeland.

The rocks served to warn Grunhilde when they were nearly ambushed in the night, a goblin and hobgoblin seeking to dispatch the heroes. Again, the battle was joined and amidst the rain of quarterstaff and hammer, the goblin was slaughtered and the hobgoblin leader, overpowered. Seeking to learn more of the nefarious group's plans, Grunhilde tied the subhuman up and interrogated the foul creature. The Hobgoblin seemed afraid, but not of his captors. Before any information of substance could be pulled from the panicked leader, from the dark a chittering spider of enormous size delivered the Hobgoblin across death's doors with an envenomed bite. Again, combat was joined, the giant predator harrying the adventurers. Despite the piercing mandibles' danger, the deadly bites did not bite through armor nor faster strike than Elven dexterity. With magical incantation, Spider shattered several of the beast's legs with missiles of magical force. Crippled, Grunhilde delivered the killing blow with her mighty hammer, splattering ichor in a gout of muck.

Victory was short-lived, as the reasons for the diminished numbers of the Black Thorn Gang was immediately apparent. The sound of more insectoid beasts hissed through the night, more eyes than could be counted seen shimmering in the night. Discretion, being the better part of valor, wound up being the order of the day. The two companions ran from the spiders, trying to avoid becoming the next prey for the true threat of the Carinsdrop Foothills. Soon hills gave way to swamplands, and running through the swamp, the heroes found themselves on the outskirts of a small town in the heart of the swamp. The curtains closed as the Elf and Dwarf walked onto dry land and to meet whatever might be their fate at the new port of call.

[Litzen Tallister]

The second entry in the campaign takes full advantage of the city setting offered in the first issue of Gygax Magazine: Gnatdamp.

Having forged through the muck, mire, monsters, miasma, marsh, and quicksand, Spider and Grunhilde arrived on the outskirts of a town perched on the river's edge in the middle of the swamp. The night air was thick and humid, lit only by scattered coal-filled braziers. Most of the village seemed intent on sleeping through the miserable night, with the exception of a nearby three-story building, its lights blazing and the sound of people within. A strange statue marked the establishment, which upon closer inspection revealed itself to be a squatting frog, painted many times over, its freshest coat of paint already succumbing to the dankness of the swamp.

Upon entering the building, it was readily seen for what it was: an inn. The owner quickly approached the unusual pairing of elf and dwarf, sizing them up and, when the newcomers were found to pose no immediate threat, they were left to their ordering of food and drinking of drink. The owner, introducing himself as Verfred Oot, hinted very strongly that the newcomers to the town of Gnatdamp, dryboots such as they were, had best find themselves useful and seek out some work. In particular, Adlaba Kurn of the Bloated Leech was recommended as she was always looking for help "leech harvesting." This last comment got a round of laughs from the regulars, but Oot encouraged the adventurers to seek out the Bloated Leech in the morning. The two decided to make use of their new-found coin from their battles with the Black Thorn Gang and ordered a private room for the night.

Despite the relative luxury of a private room, sleep was hard in the finding. The night was permeated by all manner of strange sounds, from insects, lonely frogs, to what sounded like a child sobbing in the night. The next day, en route to the Bloated Leech, Spider and Grunhilde were stopped by an armored group of guards, the leader of whom introduced himself as Al Raisher, Sentinel of Gnatdamp, responsible for law and order in the town. Again the adventurers were met with stern words, with the Sentinel advising them to tread lightly and keep their heads down, something most citizens with Gnatdamp knew how to do. Al Raisher also mentioned that the swamp was best left undisturbed also.

Left to go on their not-so-merry way, Spider and Grunhilde found themselves eventually at the Bloated Leech. The humble tavern was mostly an open space, with chairs, benches, and tables surrounding a smoking fire. The owner, the well-rounded Adlaba Kurn had apparently already heard the news of two fresh dryboots in town and was already prepared for their inquiry. Adlaba Kurn introduced the two to "bog water," a specialty of the house. From fermented tubers, a powerful concoction was distilled and, for luck or bravery, a dead leech was placed in each bottle. While the swamp was ripe with leeches, those willing to go and harvest them were in somewhat more short supply. Soon enough, the adventurers were equipped with leech-catching nets and lectures on the varieties of leeches infesting the Murkmire Swamp.

After an uneventful day of leech harvesting in which absolutely no LoUSes (Leeches of Unusual Size) were encountered and neither hero was nearly drained dry by said LoUSes necessitating combat in the swamp, the adventurers returned with a harvest of leeches. This netted them some coin and a free meal at the Bloated Leech. However, in the midst of a perfectly good meal of swamp-born bounty, one of the other patrons, another dryboot apparently, keeled over dead. Investigation by the swiftly arriving guards discovered the cause: a choke leech, one of the varieties warned of by Adlaba Kurn; a leech that prefers to drink its meals from the throats of its soon to be deceased victims. Compounding the situation, it was then discovered that the deceased dryboot had been passing through Gnatdamp on business of the court of Ersilbor. Al Raisher made it clear that both Spider and Grunhilde were ideal suspects, on account of them being known leech harvesters, both of them being dryboots arrived nearly at the same time as the deceased, and the most convenient way of making the whole matter go away if turned over to the swift justice of Ersilbor. Seeing as this was not a particularly pleasing option to either Spider or Grunhilde, they offered to find the real cause of the dead man. The Sentinel accepted the offer, but noted that he was only interested in the convenience of the solution and, if the adventurers could not find themselves an actual culprit, they would do as nicely. However, due to the clear risk of flight, both of our heroes spent the night in a different kind of private room: a cell, guarded throughout the night.

The next day they were allowed out, but reminded not to try to leave town. Through the investigations, another newcomer to the town was identified: a person had been seen looking into the closed bordello, probably to attempt to purchase the building and make an honest living of it, according to townsfolk. That night, Spider and Grunhilde found themselves at the shuttered and locked bordello. The front door was clearly locked and, despite the adventurers criminal past in Ersilbor, neither could manage a lock picking with any skill. However, breaking in through a window was a bit more their speed. As was the caustic powder that rained down on them the moment they crossed the threshold into the bordello. Finding themselves in a small room with a large bed, the two attempted to divest themselves of the burning powder. While doing so, a dark shape filled the doorway. This shape revealed itself to be a man, armed with twin daggers and covered in an intricately styled black leather armor. Making no sound, he engaged the heroes in combat. The battle was largely evenly matched, until Grunhilde arrived at the cunning strategy of stomping through the rotting floorboards on which the assassin stood. This sent him falling waist-deep through the floor. Grunhilde took advantage of this, battering the silent assassin with morningstar blow after morningstar blow. The assassin swiftly pulled himself free and, discretion being the better part of valor, fled into the swamp. While Grunhilde gave chase, finding the assassin in a dark swamp was like finding an assassin in a dark swamp and the trail quickly went cold. Returning, victorious but battered, Grunhilde and Spider searched impromptu den of the assassin, finding a smattering of coins, a potion granting invisibility which would be awfully convenient for slipping choke leeches into drinks, and a writ of assassination. The latter, identifying the target as the dead courier and the assassin as a Bailor of the Biting Blades, did little to illuminate who had purchased said writ of assassination. However, it was enough to get our heroes out of the hot bog-water they had found themselves in.

The long day at its end, the adventurers found sleep again elusive, again the sound of a child crying from somewhere in the swamp enough to make any restful sleep rarer than an elven miner. This steeled the heroes resolve: they would find the answer to the Sobbing Siren of the Swamp and deal with it before another night's sleep could be ruined for them.