Ignoble Assets

Initial GM: John

Setting

Map of the region

The fantasy/medieval kingdom of Drannor, a collection of affiliated dukedoms in the northwest corner of the enormous continent of Kara-Tur on the planet affectionately known as Gurth.

For generations, Drannor was a stable monarchy, but now the kingdom is a confederacy of city-states. There is some jostling for influence, but some form of rational diplomacy has always won out over large scale armed conflict.

The campaign will begin in Saint Germaine, known as a city of thieves.

The campaign will begin firmly in the genre of low fantasy/hard fantasy, in which magic is rare and limited, non-exotic danger lurks in every smelly alley, and reality is static (no crazy plane shifting or intergalactic travels).

Character Creation Guidelines

You have been charged with a crime and are serving your sentence or awaiting trial in the dungeons of the city.

You are probably human, though non-human sapient races will be considered if you've got your heart set on it.

Each character will be of the same total point value (potential heroes!), but this can take near-infinite different forms. You might be a hardened mercenary imprisoned for participating in a coup attempt, a teenage scamp caught scaling the walls of the mint, a genteel magician whose magic caused too much mischief, or even a wizened druid thrown in the pit for worshipping a forbidden spirit.

The make-up of the party will determine the flavor of the campaign.

Write up a brief physical (tall? nimble? ugly? strong? skinny? blonde?) description and background that answers at least these questions:

1. what's your name, age, gender?
2. What's your personality like?
3. where are you from? slums of Saint Germaine? a lumber camp near Songvar? An unnamed island of fishermen?
4. are you wealthy? poor? average?
5. what's your profession?
6. how did you get so good at it?
7. why are you in jail?
8. Any important relationships? Enemies? Allies? Contacts? Secrets? Vows?

You're encouraged to find a picture that represents your character.

You might explore some previous characters of this world for ideas and connections.

Send your backgrounds to the GM by Oct 21 to be included in the campaign.

These are TL 3 characters with 150 points and up to -75 in Disadvantages plus -5 in Quirks.

Party

• Lucy, aka "Red", Meghan's redheaded thief
• Kozlov, The Black Faun, Zach's .... weregoat
• Bjorn Skogen, Jason's axman
• Carrick, Kevin's warehouse worker
• Brandon Jackson, Nigel's pugilist
• Mavis, Amber's hedge-witch

What Happened

Deployment

The scene opens in the cold and wet government dungeon complex of Saint Germaine, where each party member has been housed for a few weeks, each for separate crimes. The dungeon doubles as a stormwater drain, and fall rains have dumped the sweepings of the medieval streets into their tiny cells periodically. Sometimes the drainpipe becomes clogged with a bloated rat, and they stand in cold water for days. The food consists of spent grains from local breweries, delivered by grunting bugbears.

But this day is different, because Lord Octavian Arminius has a task for the party, a task for which ignoble assets are required. They are to acquire a pink sapphire currently possessed by one Drago Mercurian of Songvar. If they fail to deliver within 20 days, or divulge their quest to anyone, Lord Arminius will issue black warrants for each of them, distributed far and wide to the other dukedoms, independent assassins, the Mord Sith, and so forth. A rich bounty will be offered for their slaying.

Thus convinced, the party is ushered out into the alley with their meager possessions to create a plan. Step one is to get dressed. Step two is to get a beer and a meat pie at the Goosehead Tavern.

Except for Bomber, shadowed by Kozlov, who seeks out an old contact, an elven boxing champion named Draco Sera. Draco informs Bomber that Mercurian is a respected warlord who has recently civilized the trading post at Songvar. A talented warrior, leader, businessman, forester, too.

Bomber and Kozlov rejoin the revelers ate the Goosehead to get acquainted and hatch a plan.

Red offers to solve the transportation problem. She'll simply enter the stables behind the inn where she works and steal some guests' horses. Jimmy the stableboy presents no obstacle to her charms, and the party is soon underway that very afternoon.

Upon emerging in the wide open countryside, Bomber breaks out in a cold sweat and slumps forward, briefly overwhelmed by the expansive horizon. But he soon recovers and the party rides until sunset and sets up a spartan camp, having not considered acquiring camping gear. Blankets are shared and they make it through a rainy night after nibbling badger steaks and interesting roots harvested by Bjorn Skogen, roasted inexpertly by Red upon a raging fire built by Kozlov.

A watch schedule is set, and the party is unmolested through the night.

A glorious fall sunrise is not up to the task of overcoming Bomber's chronic depression, and he needs to be placed upon his horse and led through the day.

That afternoon, the party spots a wagon with two mounted escorts. After some cautious eyeballing between mercenaries, introductions are made; this is cheese merchant Hagar Vanderpool and his dark-haired daughter Elsa. The nameless, scarred, tanned, rangy bodyguards take up tactical positions while Kozlov awkwardly interrogates the father about his daughter and his cheeses.

In the end, Kozlov purchases a special leather pouch containing a potent fermented smoked goat cheese concoction, and the party travels on.

That night, unsuccessful in the hills, Bjorn returns from the salt marshes with a string of odd-looking crayfish, and party has another strange meal around a raging Kozlov-fire.

On day 3, Bomber has temporarily recovered, and there is a strategy discussion at breakfast, because Bjorn believes that Songvar will be spotted by day's end. Should we enter together? Separately? What's our story?

It's decided that entering together will seem normal -- it's the safest way to travel.

Just a mile down the road, Carrick spots a wisp of smoke beyond some trees, and a staggering traveler coming up the road in the foreground.

Red and Carrick check on the wounded man, Kozlov sprints into the woods for a roundabout view of the smoke situation, and Bomber and Bjorn ride straight past the traveler to investigate the smoke, itching for a fight.

The staggering man is Targ Wallman, a bodyguard of Raul Beauregard, and he is badly wounded, hi arm hanging like a ham from his shoulder, and dark blood covering his abdomen and legs. He collapses when Red and Carrick approach.

With a magical touch, Carrick stabilizes the patient, and he reports that his entire squad of colleagues was wiped out before dawn, and he narrowly escaped with his life. Orc raiders.

He also volunteers that his master was transporting a fortune in elven fineries and gold.

Meanwhile, Kozlov successfully creeps stealthily to within 15 yards of a scene of devastation -- a damaged wagon, 15+ bloodied bodies lying prone, and a half dozen orcs apparently arguing over the loot. Crouching in a shrubbery, Kozlov quietly takes aim with his loaded crossbow.

The rest of the party, leaving Targ behind on the road, convenes at the edge of a copse of trees atop a low hill some 300 yards from the scene.

Bomber is itching for a fight and proposes a full-gallop charge. Debate ensues. Kozlov sits quietly, aiming....

A Roadside Skirmish

The team charges, the orcs notice, and fan out, ready to hurl their spears into horseflesh.

Lucy nearly slides off her horse and lags behind, but Bomber and Bjorn stay at full throttle for over two hundred yards before yanking their mounts to a halt and hopping off.

Lucy fires arrows, Kozlov fires bolts and throws knives, Bjorn throws and swings axes, Carrick clobbers with his mace, and Bomber boxes his way to victory. Minor injuries are healed by Carrick afterwards, and Kozlov's temporary transformation to a semi-goat-man is accepted after a brief interrogation.

While raiding plunder amid the bodies, it's discovered that there's one survivor -- the owner of the plunder, Raul Beauregard.

Carrick hikes over the hill to fetch Targ Wallman, Raul's bodyguard. Targ sizes up the scattered treasure, his reputation and prospects for future employment, and gladly accepts a handful of gold to disappear.

Meanwhile, Bjorn works on fixing the damaged wagon so the fine goods might be transported to Songvar.

The party has not yet decided on what do to with Raul... until next time.

Adventuring in Songvar

After some debate, the party takes the following actions before departing for Songvar:

• Raul Beauregard, wounds healed but still unconscious, is loaded into the back of the covered wagon, which Bjorn has repaired. Bomber will ride in the back and make sure Raul stays unconscious.
• Half the slain bodyguards are dragged into bushes. The other half, and all the orcs, are left in the muddy road. There's some talk of creating the appearance that the party is the half of the bodyguard squad that survived.
• Small valuables are looted, but nobody's interested in Raul's fancy Southern goods.
• Horses are rounded up and arranged by Carrick to trail behind the party.

By the middle of the rainy afternoon, they party arrives in Songvar and is immediately beset by cart-pushing peddlers of various cheap adventuring gear, goblin sex slaves, and booze. They make their way through the mud to the main compound and pay the modest fee to enter.

Within, a slightly more civilized and permanent culture awaits, and the most of the group heads into one of the two taverns in compound. Beers are had.

Bomber and Kozlov take their chances in the brothel, and spend some money and bodily fluids for the remainder of the day. Kozlov's experience is particularly exotic, during an extended encounter with Cynthia, Slither, and Beef in which his knees reversed and horns grew out.

Marlena Mercurian

Meanwhile the rest of the crew uses blue collar charm and feminine wiles to gather some intelligence and rumors. It sounds like Drago Mercurian is out on his one-week-a-month adventures in Ravenwood. His daughter Marlena Mercurian, a stunning beauty, trains continuously with a weaponmaster from the mysterious East. She is cursed, perhaps -- there's something wrong with her. Drago will certainly never allow her to marry. Or maybe, he's made some sort of deal with a demon to keep her virginity intact. Something's definitely odd in that family.

The party reconvenes and discusses options over beers long after dark. It's day four of twenty before their death warrants are issued, so there's time, but the clock is ticking. The group conjectures that daughter possesses the pink-orange sapphire. Or perhaps it's locked somewhere in the house. Or Drago's got it.

Bomber, Lucy and Kozlov, after first peering over the 8' wall of Drago's inner sanctum, find hiding spots and sit in the dark, waiting for the gates to open. Eventually, out walks a blond-haired man they'd spotted earlier watching over Marlena's workout.

Bomber approaches casually, and then suddenly, brass knuckles bared, fists flying. The blond dodges the first but steps right into the path of the other, and is sent sprawling in the mud, stunned. Lucy and Kozlov rush in to help, and together they drag the dazed blond to the lumber warehouse that Carrick and Bjorn have scouted.

Drago Hunting

Dirk Winsome

Lucy

Drago Mercurian

With Kozlov's knives at the poor lad's neck, Lucy interrogates the towheaded prisoner, Dirk Winsome. He spills the beans pretty quickly. He's in love with Marlena Mercurian, and afraid of her father Drago, who is extremely protective of his odd daughter. Further, when Marlena is mentioned to Drago while she is not present, Dirk has witnessed her father clasp an object that hangs between his enormous pectoral muscles, that might be an egg-sized gem. Finally, Drago is expected back tomorrow or maybe the next day, and always travels with his scout, and his right-hand man.

The party decides to gag Dirk and tie him to Lucy's bed back at the inn. They sneak him in before dawn and snag a football-sized hunk of cheese on the way out.

Then, while the rest of the party gathers and outfits their horses from the stables, Kozlov returns, slits Dirk's throat, and leaves him for dead. Afterwards, he stops by the venereal flophouse to hire Slither and Beef, who are ready for action at the mention of gold.

In starlight, the party exits the sleeping outpost and, led by a goat named Kozlov, finds a little trail leading east, towards Ravenwood. Suspecting that Drago and his men come and go on the same trail, they follow it a few hours, yawning occasionally. Around dawn of Day 5, they stop in a grove of trees to rest and meditate while Bjorn hunts beaver.

Thanks to Kozlov and Bjorn's nearly-smokeless fire, the party rests much of the day, enjoying hot beaver for breakfast and roast doe for lunch.

In the late afternoon, they spot three men, mere specks at three miles, emerging from the dark wall of foliage called Ravenwood.

This is enough for Bomber, itching yet again for a fight, and the party mounts up and begins galloping towards the three, but not before Kozlov tells Slither and Beef how much extra they'll be paid for killing Drago.

At eight hundred yards, the notice that the most slender of the three has a long bow, and seems to be aiming in their direction. Rethinking the galloping charge, the party slows to a polite canter. At three hundred, they dismount and begin walking, and Drago signals his scout to stand down.

Greetings are hollered. The party claims to be traveling, or maybe lost, or scouting. Drago warns that Ravenwood is dangerous, full of evil things, including witches. He puts his hands on his hips, frowns and looks down at the ground.

Meanwhile, Kozlov has been snaking stealthily through the grass with his crossbow. At a hundred yards, he braces and aims. After a long exhale, he fires. The bolt takes a full second to soundlessly traverse the distance. It slips deep between the slender bowman's ribs, and he drops into the high grass with a moan.

And then...

Unlikely Alliance

Combat ensues, with Bjorn taking down the other of Drago's henchmen, but not before Bomber is disabled by Drago's twin blades.

Drago calms the combatants with a commanding bellow, and first aid and negotiation begins.

The party demands the sapphire. Drago explains that he is on his way back from a meeting with a witch, in which he plead his case to have a charm removed from it, upon which the gem has no value to him. His daughter's passion for life resides therein, a result of his misguided attempt to only curtail her sexuality. The witch, he says, enjoys observing his anguish and regret, and refuses to undo the magic.

Just then Mavis prances in, an old friend of Kozlov's. Introductions are made, and she seems trustworthy, needs a job, and is invited to join the group.

After much cajoling, Drago agrees to guide the group to the witch's lair. Wounded henchmen are sent back to Songvar, and Slither is dispatched to the underworld after answering Kozlov's questions wrong.

In the morning of Day 7, Mavis demonstrates her woodland survival talents by snaring a pair of hares for breakfast after Bjorn returns empty-handed.

On Day 8, the witch's troll attacks. Carrick rushes to attack, and is gravely wounded. Bjorn, Lucy, and Bomber take the beast down, and Kozlov and Mavis collaborate on its obliteration with fire.

The group heals, rests, and presses on, shortly reaching the cave in which, Drago claims, the witch resides. They enter.

Mushrooms and mosses within, and giant beetles and spiders crunch underfoot. Dripping water, hanging tree root tendrils. Huge dead frogs hang from vines, tied ritualistically upside down by the rear legs, some dried up, some putrid, some fresh.

The witch sits on a rock in the back, a pool of still water in front of her, reflecting light from the outside up at her. She squats ungracefully, dark skin, gray dreadlocks streaked with mud and moss, huge swaying empty pancake breasts, glazed over white eyes, visible white chin hair, large warty nose, and a mossy blanket over her shoulders.

She croaks,

"Ah, very good, you are sturdy warriors, yes?"

To the Black Pool

Eminiscu the witch, speaking in interrogatory riddles, intimates that she greatly enjoys Drago Mercurian's anguish and discomfort, and continues to refuse to release the charm that entraps Marlena's 'succulent youth'. However, she'd be willing to make a trade.

All the party has to do is seize another gem of similar appearance from the Shadow King in the Valley of Scars north of the Black Pool. Fetch this gem for her, and she says she'll return Marlena to normal.

After the witch tosses Mavis a pipe and some odd herbs, the party agrees and treks east.

At dinnertime, they encounter an old campsite, with clods of rain-saturated crap scattered around a large ring of stones containing the cold remains of a large campfire. And, bones. Little baby bones.

But maybe not babies, small people. One has a tiny hunting bow and leather britches.

Bjorn fetches a dozen fist-sized snails from the underside of leaning tree and the party dines around the fire, though Mavis and Kozlov climb a tree to avoid land-based hazards.

The next day, Kozlov scouts ahead, and soon spots twenty wee folk ahead, no taller than his knee, struggling to move a fallen log. He gestures to the party to come forward and then sneaks away -- but steps on a big stick, which cracks, and he bolts away to climb a tree. The wee folk confront him as the party moves forward.

Tensions dissipate after the party explains their purpose.

Mammoth Lord Markelwinkus assigns Towering Lords Blaxamander and Hoobanocker and a squad of archers to lead the party to the Black Pool. They head out forthwith, with the little guys sharing limericks along the way.

Overnight, after a meal of wild boar and mushroom, creature noises are heard. Kozlov tries to quietly leap from tree to tree to get a better look, which works pretty well, until it doesn't, and he falls, injuring his leg. As the party rushes over to help him, whatever was making the sound flees.

In the middle of the sunny afternoon of Day 10, the party arrives at what the wee folk say is the Black Pool, though they're pointing at a steep conical hill.

Promises are made to keep in touch, and then the little guys bound away, nimbly vaulting over fallen logs.

Curious, the party ascends the hill, Bjorn and Carrick clearing a path through thorns and poison ivy. At the rim, they spot the valley to the north.

But within the collapsed cone, along the shore of the Black Pool, lie many bones, and a gleaming suit of plate mail.