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| Top row: Face the paladin, Heather the witch, Bjorn the barbarian, Falco the acrobat Front Row: Rusty the alchemist, Skip the warpriest, Dawne the sorceress, Ash the ranger |
After first retrieving their horses, they rode up to the little town of Sunbeam and proceeded to the mine. Mr. Growlon verified that the abandoned mine was indeed rich with silver. While the party rode back to Sunbeam, pondering why the mine was ever closed in the first place, a single elven ranger appeared in their path, drawing an intricately carved longbow.
"You will not re-open that mine," he said.
"And why not?" asked Heather, who knew the hardships that the town had been through since the mine closed.
"My order guards the mountain against all intruders, for something dangerous lies within it. Something that must not come to light."
"Then tell us what it is."
"It must remain a secret, for knowledge of it will enflame man's spirit and cause great evil to be unleashed upon the world. Suffice it to say that delving too greedily and too deep cannot be permitted."
"Damn point-ears just want the silver to themselves, don't they?" Hanc Growlon exclaimed.
"The mountain must remain secure. Hand over the mining company man and you may all go free."
"What about this: we'll travel to the Deuclair Company and make your case to them," Heather suggested.
The elf reluctantly agreed to this. He signalled, and a party of elven braves left the places they had been hiding not ten yards from the party and faded back into the wilderness.
As they rode back to town, Hanc told them, "You know, I have to recommend to the company that they resume mining here. It's my duty as their officer. Point-eared fairy-tales be damned, that's real silver in that mine. Silver that will make both Deuclair and the town of Sunbeam very wealthy."
After the party got Hanc to the town's only hotel, they gathered at Heather's house to discuss things further. None of them liked the sound of the elf's story, a story lent even more credulity by the huge chasm they had discovered under the mountain in the Stonefoot Tribe's lair. What evils could lurk in that abyss? They decided to go with Hanc to the Deuclair Company offices and report the company's plans back to the elves.
The next day, Skip left, stating that he had unfinished business he needed to attend to. The rest of the party purchased some of the horses that they had previously borrowed from the townspeople. As they rode down the now-familiar path to Fort Crawdon, a pack of rabid coyotes attacked. The mad beasts leapt in to attack the largest chunks of meat they could find - the horses and Big Bjorn. Bjorn made quick work of four of them with his greatsword while the rest of the party picked the others off with guns (or in Rusty's case, bombs). Falco, however, had some troubles. When he fired his gun, there was only a click, followed by the bullet slowly sliding out of the barrel. He checked the brass cartridge and found that there was a thin roll of paper where the gunpowder should be. After the rabid coyotes had been slain, he unrolled the paper and discovered it was a tiny treasure map! Someone must have hidden it in a bullet and then lost it - who knows how many times the bullet had been looted off a corpse and then gone unused until Falco found it. The map showed a fort, a trail heading off toward a stream, some woods, and an 'X' labelled 'Sawyer'.
After the party got Hanc back to Fort Crawdon, they set off. Hanc warned them to be back by 10 the next morning to catch the train, but as it was only noon they were confident they would make it. They rode off and found the stream, then the small birch forest. As they approached they noticed, a large, menacing bulk moving on the edge of the woods. They advanced cautiously, with Bjorn singing a jaunty tune about killing monsters to keep spirits up. Soon enough, they heard the menacing call of the owl bear and the great feathery beast burst out at them. Bjorn rushed into the fray, but he was almost killed by the ferocious beast's claws and wicked beak. Only Heather's healing hex kept him up while the rest of the party opened up on the owlbear with all their firepower. Bjorn, bloody but still standing, delivered the killing blow to the creature and then wore its bloody hide as a cape for the rest of the night.
They continued on as twilight dimmed the woods, and soon they had to navigate by Dawne's dancing lights. Eventually, they found themselves at an abandoned shack with five wooden grave markers and an empty grave out front. There was no light on in the shack, and it looked to have been derelict for several years, so they went closer and investigated. One of the grave markers said 'Sawyer', so Bjorn found a shovel and started digging. Just then, a noise from the shack startled the party. Dawne went to investigate while Ash and Heather trained their rifles on the door. As the sorceress pushed the door open, she was met by a gunshot and a skeletal face. Then more skeletons started to emerge from the graves, trailing roots and tatters of clothing, their rib-cages and skulls clogged with plugs of dirt. Rusty crushed one of the skeletons with his miner's pick (actually a re-skinned morningstar) as it crawled out of the earth next to him. The skeletal champion in the shack chased Dawne out with a flurry of bullets, and then Face ran over and hit him with a blast from her shotgun. Ash and Heather peppered it with their rifles, but skeletons are notoriously difficult to hit with piercing damage. Rusty, meanwhile, crushed two more skeletons while Bjorn bisected another. Once Dawne was healed, she ran back into the shack and finished the skeleton off with a shocking grasp.
Rusty grabbed a masterwork knife off one of the skeletons, and Falco took the skeletal champion's +1 revolver. When they dug up Sawyer's grave, they found a coffin filled with six fifteen-pound bags of gold coins - a fortune of 4,500 gp. With the moon rising over the treetops, they debated how best to cover their tracks in case anyone else came looking for the gold, and whether or not to take it all with them or bury some of it again for later. Falco busied himself forging a false treasure map to bury in Sawyers's grave, while Bjorn suggested spending all night chopping the shack in half so that anyone who came by would think a giant frequented the place. Eventually, they realized their over-elaborate plans were ultimately pointless, and decided to ride out with the gold in their saddlebags. But the group did come up with a name for themselves: the Masters of Misdirection.
They arrived back at Fort Crawdon well after midnight, bought some rooms in the hotel, and bathed. The next morning, they met Mr. Growlon at the train station and headed off to Jenkin, a major western trade hub of the Kingdom of Caldura. They passed the time on the train by drinking and playing truth or dare.
They pulled into Jenkin well after the gas lights had been lit, and Hanc got them rooms at a fancy hotel, much to the displeasure of the other posh guests. The next morning, they split up in search of all the various things a major city can offer. Bjorn and Ash exchanged the party's gold coins for lighter bills while Dawne went off in search of a magic user to return her body to its proper age. They also encountered a huckster who tried to sell them magic bullets and a magic sword, both of which glowed. He claimed the sword would cleave through armor like butter, and the bullets would seek out flesh, but Dawne could detect no magic on them and the party ultimately decided against giving him their money. Ash had an encounter with an old member of his bandit gang who had apparently gotten out of the business and gave Ash 500 gold to make amends for the gang having backstabbed and betrayed him. Dawne finally located the mage's guild, but the wizard she hired there was unable to remove the curse on her.
Finally, after noon, the party regrouped and headed off with Hanc Growlon to meet with the Deuclaire Mining Company and install themselves as double-agents. In the waiting room outside the imposing doors of the board room, the party encountered a well-dressed dwarf and a woman in a red dress. Falco immediately began hitting on the woman, who took kindly to his advances until Dawne came over, making the best of her curse of youth, and asked in her most grating 8-year-old voice, "Daddy, is this the new mommy you promised?"
Soon, the odd-looking bunch of adventurers were whisked into the boardroom by Hanc Growlon. Awaiting them was Mr. Deuclair himself, flanked by his associates, Mr. Tralt and Sir Wexham. With Hanc taking the lead, they explained the situation at the mine, how it now showed great promise, and how it was threatened by elves. Mr. Deuclair wanted to know how the mine had come to be abandoned in the first place, and Mr. Tralt reported that David Ganler, Hanc Growlon's predecessor, had been in charge of the operation and had overseen the mine's closure, but he was an impeccable worker who retired in good standing shortly thereafter. The board and the party agreed that the hobgoblin-run illegal mining operation had simply uncovered a new vein of silver deeper in the mountain.
As for the matter of defense, Sir Wexham suggested a garrison of 80 soldiers, a number which would be doubled once the operation got up and running in earnest. He also suggested wiring the area for telegraphs to help aid in communication and "make use of every technological advantage we have over the savages." At this, Mr. Tralt suggested using "those metal soldiers the railroad seems so fond of deploying," but Sir Wexham plainly stated that "Gun sentinels are out of the question. They require constant supervision by a powerful magic user or they risk going haywire. There’s a reason the army never really cottoned to them, even during the war." The party, having already faced one in battle, concurred, to which Big Bjorn added that "They are way too easy to cut in half with a greatsword!"
The party then offered their services as mercenaries. Mr. Deuclair eyed them, noting the 8-year-old girl and the garishly clothed acrobat, but also the huge mountain of muscle and the tough-looking frontier rifleman. With Mr. Growlon's recommendation, he agreed. He hired the party on as mercenaries for 500 gp per month each, with the first two months paid in advance as a reward for their excellent service so far.
Growlon stayed behind to work on some logistical issues while the party headed out for a late lunch. As they were sitting down to a meal at a nice tavern, a half-elf covered in intricate tattoos and wearing woven cedar armor burst through the doors as hecklers outside shouted "Get out of town, point-ears!" One of the bartenders called out, "Hey, we can't serve you here," at which point Bjorn stood up and said, "He's with us." The appreciative half-elf sat at their table and introduced himself as Gudguníis Ta'an, a half-elf from the Northwest who was searching for a worthy group of adventurers to join. No sooner had he settled in than the dwarf from the Deuclair waiting room approached them. He had overheard the party's meeting and wondered if they might be interested in some other underground investigations. He introduced himself as Krandar Dent, of the Dent merchant concern, and he wanted the party to investigate a mysterious, apparently non-magical glowing dye that a rival merchant house, House Fleckstone, had begun exporting. He would pay handsomely for information about the true source of the dye, which he suspected was mineral rather than alchemical, as Fleckstone claimed. The party, always on the lookout for more sources of income, agreed.
They sought out the huckster from earlier and intimidated him until he revealed where he got his glowing dye. The trail led back to Magnushold, a dwarven city in the mountains to the southwest. The party headed out on the first train.
Magnushold was an unusual dwarven city. Built into a series of horizontal fissures in a mountain, the dwarven trade city features both underground and aboveground buildings, including squat dwarven towers and narrow subterranean avenues.
The party de-trained in the mercantile district and sought out the nearest Fleckstone trading house. They interrogated the confused dwarven clerk across the counter, who insisted that the glowing dye was created using a proprietary process, and kept asking if the party was interested in a distribution contract. Trying a different tack, Falco, Ash, and Gudguníis decided to stake the place out.
Dawn, meanwhile, sought out someone who could remove the curse she had been settled with and restore her to her proper age. Having no luck finding a dwarven wizard or sorcerer, she sought help at the most impressive-looking temple she could find, the House of the Thunderer. The high priest there prayed over her and decided to try to dispel the magic afflicting her. He struggled for a while, but finally placed his holy symbol on her forehead and told her that, though it might take a day or two, she would soon be returning to her proper age. Overjoyed, she gave him double the suggested donation and ran back to rejoin the party.
At midnight, a covered wagon rolled up to the Fleckstone trading house and unloaded various goods. The armed dwarves unloading it took special care when moving a small strongbox into the building - presumably the dye. The guards kept a close watch, leaving no opening for the party to sneak into the wagon, but they followed it as it rolled away down twisting subterranean alleys. It finally pulled to a stop outside an isolated warehouse on the dark edge of the city, unremarkable except for two armed guards standing at its only entrance. They watched the wagon go in and then the wagon operators walk out, leaving only the two guards. With a frontal assault deemed too unstealthy, the party hunkered down and waited. Two hours later, another wagon approached, driven by only one teamster. He announced that he had "supplies for the outpost," and as he was fumbling with his paperwork, Ash and Gudguníis snuck into the back of the wagon and hid in some barrels.
About an hour after they were loaded into the warehouse and abandoned, Ash and Gudguníis left their barrels. The warehouse was empty except for themselves and a whole bunch of containers. One of the chests that had come in with them was locked, and Gudguníis satisfied his curiosity by picking it and seeing what was inside. It was a bag containing four mithril bars, labeled "For Maëlgrenna" in some obscure elvish dialect. In the rear of the warehouse was a strong iron door. Wordlessly, Gudguníis picked the lock, but realized that the door was also trapped. He attempted to disarm it, but was met by a spray of acid and a ringing alarm. He and Ash ducked into the nearest cover as the warehouse door opened and one of the dwarves strode inside. The other dwarf stood at the doorway, pacing warily. The rest of the party attempted to create a diversion: "Oh no, a big burly barbarian is attacking us in a threatening manner!" yelled Heather. "I sure hope some heroic, well-armed dwarf comes and saves me!" "No, that would be terrible for me," cried Bjorn. "Dwarves with shotguns are exactly what I don't want!" Sadly, the dwarf guards did not take the bait. However, their search of the warehouse turned up no culprits. "Must have been another malfunction in the lab door," one of them said as they closed and sealed the door again.
Once again, Ash and Gudguníis snuck up to the door. This time, Gudguníis was able to disarm the trap, and they entered the lab. What they saw within was underwhelming - just some dusty alchemical equipment and a bunch of empty desks. But then they noticed a secret hatch in the floor. It opened to reveal a ladder, and then a set of stairs descending deep into the earth. Ash lit a torch and they ventured down. Soon, they started hearing flowing water. A bit further and the stairway opened up into a large cavern. With the light of Ash's torch, they were able to make out a massive subterranean river, and on it, moored to a dock at the end of the stairs, was a steamboat.
Back up at the warehouse, the rest of the party waited, watching the guards at the door. Suddenly, there was a loud knocking from inside. The startled guards drew their twin double-barreled shotguns and cautiously opened the door. As soon as they undid the latch, Gudguníis kicked the door open, and he and Ash slew one of the guards outright. The other opened up with all four barrels, taking Gudguníis out, but he was chased away from the door by Ash's heavy caliber rifle shots. Heather and Falco opened up from cover, and the wounded guard dashed around the corner of the warehouse. Only now realizing the full extent of the situation, he called out, "Hold your fire! I'm a spy! I'm a spy for House Dent!"
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I recently started a new job and have been pretty busy, giving me little time to prepare for my biweekly gaming sessions. As such, I've been relying pretty heavily on improv. I usually have a fairly good idea of where the campaign is going, and I like to be sure I have complicated areas mapped out and any stat blocks I need prepped and ready to go, but for the most part I can safely wing it.
Improvising takes practice - it's a skill, and you need to work up to it - but any GM has to do it on at least some level, even if you are running a pre-made adventure, like a Pathfinder Adventure Path or one of my short one-shot adventures. Improvising a whole play session is risky, though. It can turn out great, but it can also leave you - and the players - twisting in the wind. In this case, I had to improvise a whole play session and it turned out great! In the above after-action-report, everything after the run-in with the elves at Sunbeam Mountain and before the board meeting at the Deuclair Mining Co. was completely improvised. I had no maps plotted out, no stat blocks in my pocket, and no clear idea of where the party would be going. Fortunately, I had prepared a level-appropriate random encounter table for the area, which I could roll on for inspiration. That's where the rabid coyote pack came from, as well as the owlbear the party encountered later. The treasure map I pulled right out of my ass as a means of sidetracking the players from the main plot, because I didn't have anything prepared for it, and of giving the party extra cash, because I'd been pretty stingy with the treasure and they were about to head to a major city. I knew I wanted to get some undead in there, because I love skeletons, so I modified some skeleton stat blocks on the fly and cooked up a cool location for their fight. Having treasure buried in a grave was probably because I had recently watched The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. It all came together swimmingly and we had one of the best play sessions in a while. I was quite pleased.
That said, I don't want to constantly improvise my play sessions. I really like having as much stuff prepared as possible, because it lends depth to the world and gives extra weight to my word as GM. It's hard to make great puzzles and awesome traps up on the fly, let alone unique monsters.
The downside to preparing all your stuff ahead of time is that sometimes you prep the wrong stuff, but if you are always prepared to improvise as well, that shouldn't be a problem. If something you prepared doesn't get used, you might find a way to sneak it back in later.
Speaking of things prepared that didn't get used, here is a stat block I prepared for something the players didn't end up investigating:
Ranch Hand CR
1/2
XP 200
N Human Expert 2
Init +2; Senses Perception
+4
DEFENSE
AC 14, touch 12,
flat-footed 12 (+2 armor, +2 Dex)
hp 11 (2d8+2)
Fort +1, Ref +2, Will +2
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee whip +3 (1d3+2)
15 ft.
or
knife +3 (1d4+2/19-20)
Ranged .38
revolver +3 (1d6) 75ft.
STATISTICS
Str 14, Dex 14, Con 13, Int 10, Wis 11, Cha 8
Base Atk +1; CMB +3; CMD 15
Feats exotic
weapon proficiency (whip), endurance
Skills Bluff +3, Handle
Animal +4, Heal +4, Intimidate +3, Knowledge (local) +4, Knowledge (nature) +4,
Perception +4, Profession (cowboy) +5, Ride +7, Survival +5
Languages Common
Gear leather
armor, 12 .38 bullets, 1d20 gp (3d20 more in footlockers in bunkhouse)
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One last thing, if you didn't notice my announcement last time: my talented friend and d20 Despot's resident artist Kent Hamilton has created d20 Doodler, a sister site to d20 Despot on which he showcases his daily D&D/Pathfinder-related sketches. Yes, daily. Monday through Friday there's a new awesome drawing up there, usually derived from characters or events in either the Graverobbers or GotWK campaign. Here's a drawing he did of Big Bjorn:
Awesome, right? Bookmark d20 doodler and check it every day! Just don't get so distracted that you forget to check d20 despot every Monday.
-your unprepared d20 despot
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